Thanks Lee for pointing me to that other post. I did actually try clicking on the options as you suggested the other dnn creative magazine member did and selected the exact same path for the database as I did in the device area under the geenral side tab.
However when I changed the path in the options tab on the side to match the same path of the device in the backup folder of microsoft sql I got the following error:
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------system.data.sqlclient.sqlerror: the operating system returned the error 32 (the process cannot access the file because it is being used by another processl) while attempting RestoreContainer::ValidateTargetForCreation on C:\program files\Microsoft SQL Server\MSSQL\Backup\databasename.bak (Microsoft.sqlserver.express.smo)-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------My quess was I got this error because I chose the exact same location path when I clicked on the device button within the general tab of restore as I did when I changed the path in the option button that the database should be restored as so what I did was chose a different folder where I stored another copy of the database.bak file on my computer and pointed the path in the options tab to that location while I pointed the path in the general tab where you browse the device or file you wish to use for your database backup to the backup folder in the microsoft sql server folder and than it seemed from all I could see to accept that as an ok response because I got a different error dealing with the fact that the specified filename for the database_log file was incorrect.In option tab it had two things one was where you wished to restore the database to and second where you wished to restore some log file (which I never got as part of my database back up from the host) and that was originally in f:\ where as the other was originally in e:\Any way I was wondering what words of wisdom if any you had to tackle these errors or if it could be something to do with my security settings in my local operating system or something because in the one case I am told that another process is using the file and in the other I am told that while it seemed to find the database location it now needed the location for the Log file which is a file that didn't come as part of the back up thanks again for you quick responses