Have you done all the necessary configuration from the admin guide?

Backing Up and Restoring Servers on the server  Farm
You can back up and restore an entire server farm, an entire portal, or
individual components of a Microsoft Office SharePoint Portal Server 2003
deployment by using the SharePoint Portal Server Data backup  and Restore
utility. You can start the utility from the SharePoint Portal Server group on
the All Programs menu.

Important You must install the Microsoft SQL Server 2000 client tools on the
front-end Web server from which you run the backup and restore process in a
server farm.

To back up an image, the following accounts must have write access to the
directory where the image is located. To restore an image successfully, the
following accounts must have read access:
The service account for SQL Server
The search service and database access accounts for search
The current user



The current user must also have the following rights:
Read access to all SQL Server databases
Write access to all site databases and the configuration database
Membership in the local administrators group on the document management
server
Administrator rights on the database server, either as a member of the local
administrators group or as a member of the SQL Server 2000 System Administrators
server role



The SharePoint Portal Server Backup and Restore utility successfully backs up
and restores almost all of the data in your server farm. However, custom Web
Parts will need to be reinstalled on every front-end Web server in the server
farm. To avoid having to reinstall these custom Web Parts, you have the option
of using the operating system backup and restore utility before using the
SharePoint Portal Server Backup and Restore utility.

Thanx for ur logical guide although i was able to solve this issue
before ur reply but still this logical reply will help me alot in
understanding the nature of any other issue.

Additionally verify below - Some time it could be a simple access/permissions
issue



The current user must also have the following rights:

· Read access to all SQL server  databases

· Write access to all site databases and the
configuration database

· Membership in the local administrators group on the
document management server

· The user is a member of the backup  Operators group on
the content index servers.

· The user has permission to backup the SQL Server
databases.

· Administrator rights on the database server, either as
a member of the local administrators group or as a member of the SQL Server 2000
System Administrators server role

The SharePoint Portal Server Backup and Restore utility successfully backs up
and restores almost all of the data in your server farm. However, custom Web
Parts will need to be reinstalled on every front-end Web server in the server
farm. To avoid having to reinstall these custom Web Parts, you have the option
of using the operating system backup and restore utility before using the
SharePoint Portal Server Backup and Restore utility.

To back up or restore an image successfully, the following accounts must have
access to the directory containing the backup files:

· The service account for SQL Server must have write
access to the directory.

· The search service and database access accounts for
search must have write access to the directory.

· The current user must have write access to the
directory.

Hope u will agree It is difficult to understand /solve or workaround a issue
that u do not have access to or cannot reproduce. So I can only offer
suggestions

What edition of windows  2003 ? does he have – check the link
support.microsoft.com/default.aspx

go to

SharePoint Central Administration - > Configure server  topology -> and see if
there is a dot under each of the below category for that web server

Component Assignments

View the components currently active on each server. To open SharePoint Portal
Server Central Administration page for each server, click the server name.

Server

Web

Search

Index

Job

ServerABC

And let me know.

If you does find a solution, then to pls update me !