I presume you've added the correct Service Packs and hot fixes?

What about seeing if the databases work on a newer version 2005 or 2008?

A little more info, if you please

What OS are you running?

What version of SQL 2008?

Are you able to connect from the server to itself?

What's showing in the sql activity log?

Can...

okay I copied the registry over and everything is now working normally.

Okay I re service packed the instance and everything is okay on the new nodes.

Oh according to MS documentation it shouldn't be able to start SQL server with a...

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/303411

Does the domain account your running sql as have permissions to create SPNs in your AD?

So if I add a node to the sql server I have to patch it even though it installs SQL for me?

okay found that the node had to have all the disks in the cluster (not just its group/VM)

I think they mean not shared with any other system to have write access. When setting up HA clustering only the active node has access to the drives, the passive...

Yes that did indeed solve the problem.

Thank you for your help

Ah sharp eyes there. Yes thats it, I must have added a space when creating the database.

I'm going to follow the instructions at

http://blogs.msdn.com/sqlserverfaq/archive/2008/07/27/maintenance-plans-with-backup-database-task-fails-when-the-create-a-sub-directory-for-each-database-option-is-checked.aspx

to solve it

Thansk for the replies

GilaMonster- initially the job creates the folder (create sub directories for each database), when it failed I tried it by creating the folder.

The SQL agent...

I had a look at connecting a Progress db but as you found out the only method seems to be that ODBC driver and IIRC it cost a small fortune....