• OK, so basically I ended up backing up the database, moving it to secondary, restoring the database in NoRecovery/Stand By, and went back to the primary and finished log shipping there, no problem, just wish I'd done that in the first place!

    I reckon it was down to permissions, set up by someone else and I had to find my way around.

    One thing I would say about this to anyone experiencing the same issue. Try moving the .bak file to the secondary server and restoring the database from the same place you was getting this issue. You will get the same error, move the file around until you find a place where the permissions are correct, I ended up copying it to place SQL keeps the MDF files, and getting round it that way. And its so much easier to restore to the seconday first, then choosing the 'No, the database is already initialized' option when setting up on the primary. As George said above, so much easier and reliable.

    Thanks for getting back Perry and George.

    Cheers,

    D.