I am still not understanding. You have a 2008 server at a and one at b.
You copied the Postgres data files from 2008 server a to 2008 server b.
This did not work, so you say you restored the data directory on server
b from an old copy of the data directory at b.
So where did that old copy come from?
> short answer - from b itself (whatever was created right after
installation).
> long answer - 2008 servers at a and b. postgres 9.3s at a and b.
added databases to postgres-a (postgres-b is empty/new). shutdown
postgres-a and b. copied data-a and b to a network shared between
server-a and b. deleted data-b on server-b. copied data-a from network
to server-b.
> restarted postgres-a and postgres-b. postgres-a succeeds. postgres-b
fails.
> so deleted data on server-b. restored data-b from network ("old
copy") to server-b. restarted postgres-b. postgres-b still fails.
So is there anything in the Windows system logs?
> looks like file system level backups don't work well on windows because they get corrupted during transfer.
Does the Task Manager show another Postgres running?
> no