Questions: 1) Both servers are x64?
> yes 2) What installation files(Graphical installer, source,etc)? > postgresql-9.3.0-1-windows-x64 from enterprisedb.com <http://enterprisedb.com> 3) Does the data directory have the config files? > yes however, postgresql b won't start ("not listening")? 4) How are you starting? > pgadmin -> start server 5) What is the exact error message and where are you seeing it? > "server not listening on port 5432" in cmd ('netstat -ab | find "5432"' also returns empty) Have you checked what port is set up in postgresql.conf? > yes (port = 5432) I am not that familiar with Windows and pgAdmin so I will resort to the docs: Does any of the below apply? http://www.pgadmin.org/docs/1.8/connect.html "If pgAdmin is running on a Windows machine, it can control the postmaster service if you have enough access rights. Enter the name of the service. In case of a remote server, it must be prepended by the machine name (e.g. PSE1\pgsql-8.0). pgAdmin will automatically discover services running on your local machine. " > thanks. it doesn't help. i also tried pg_ctl without luck ( http://www.postgresql.org/docs/9.3/static/app-pg-ctl.html). so i restored postgresql b's old /data/, but it still won't start?! 6) So there was an existing Postgres instance at b? > yes. two installations - a and b. I am still not understanding. You have a 2008 server at a and one at b. You copied the Postgres data files from 2008 server a to 2008 server b. This did not work, so you say you restored the data directory on server b from an old copy of the data directory at b. So where did that old copy come from? > short answer - from b itself (whatever was created right after installation). > long answer - 2008 servers at a and b. postgres 9.3s at a and b. added databases to postgres-a (postgres-b is empty/new). shutdown postgres-a and b. copied data-a and b to a network shared between server-a and b. deleted data-b on server-b. copied data-a from network to server-b. > restarted postgres-a and postgres-b. postgres-a succeeds. postgres-b fails. > so deleted data on server-b. restored data-b from network ("old copy") to server-b. restarted postgres-b. postgres-b still fails.