Moodle Upgrade Hangs on -->System

Over the last few months we have been unable to complete Moodle updates and upgrades. The problem was that when the upgrade was kicked off the upgrade would hang at the first stage. Shown in the image below.

We use all Microsoft technologies for our system. 

• NLB clustered Windows Server 2008 R2 (IIS 7.5)
• PHP 5.2.13 (FastCGI) 
• SQL 2008 Failover Cluster
• MSSQL PHP Driver (not FreeTDS)

There was no error messages at all, and the windows would stay in exactly the same position for days if you left it. To cancel press CTRL+C.

SQL Server 2008 Restore - Error 3154: The backup set holds a backup of a database other than the existing database.

I came across an issue today where i needed to restore a backup of a database. The database backup needed to be restored to a database with a different name, but with the original database still in production on the same server. 

When you attempt it you get the error below.

This can create an issue because the backup wants to restore to its original file location. The error isn't really very helpful.