I just wanted to thank those who helped me.
I finally hit it on the head, was the SQL_ASCHII versus UNICODE.
I am not sure why I got my original database in SQL_ASCHII, but when I did my create with it and restored to it it was fine.
I am going to try my create with UNICODE (the default it seems unless from command line) and run my app to copy my data over to see if I can then backup and restore ok with UNICODE. I have the feeling I will be better off using it as we do anticipate foreign language users.
Joel Fradkin