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SharePoint 2010 error when importing an archived site

We have a Top Site with many sub sites (30) and I have started archiving (by exporting/deleting) a number of them using the [Granular Backup] [Export a Site] in SharePoint Central Administration.

I have exported successfully 3 to an external archive storage drive.

I thought it prudent to test that I could import them again, something that we are likely to do in future years.
So, I used the following Powershell command:

PS C:\Users\Admin> Import-SPWeb -identity http://our.sharepoint.co.uk -path G:\SharePoint_Site_Archives\Archived_Sub_Site\Archived_Sub_Site.cmp

This returned a Fatal Error:

Import-SPWeb : Cannot import site. The exported site is based on the template STS#1 but the destination site is based on the template STS#0. You can import sites only into sites that are based on same template as the exported site.
At line:1 char:13
+ Import-SPWeb <<<< -identity http://our.sharepoint.co.uk -path G:\SharePoint_Site_Archives\Archived_Sub_Site\Archived_Sub_Site.cmp
+ CategoryInfo : InvalidData: (Microsoft.Share...CmdletImportWeb: SPCmdletImportWeb) [Import-SPWeb], SPException
+ FullyQualifiedErrorId : Microsoft.SharePoint.PowerShell.SPCmdletImportWeb

I assumed that the main Top Site is built using Template STS#0 and that the sub-sites are all based on my customised template STS#1.
So I recreated one of the subsites 'Archived_Sub_Site' from my template empty of any content and added the sub-site \Archived_Sub_Site to my command and also added the -Force parameter:

PS C:\Users\Admin> Import-SPWeb -identity http://our.sharepoint.co.uk/archived_sub_site -path G:\SharePoint_Site_Archives\Archived_Sub_Site\Archived_Sub_Site.cmp

This returned a different error:

Import-SPWeb : A list, survey, discussion board, or document library with the specified title already exists in this Web site. Please choose another title.
At line:1 char:13
+ Import-SPWeb <<<< -identity http://our.sharepoint.co.uk/archived_sub_site -path G:\SharePoint_Site_Archives\archived_sub_site\archived_sub_site.cmp
+ CategoryInfo : InvalidData: (Microsoft.Share...CmdletImportWeb:SPCmdletImportWeb) [Import-SPWeb], SPException
+ FullyQualifiedErrorId : Microsoft.SharePoint.PowerShell.SPCmdletImportWeb

So if a list, survey, discussion board, or document library already exists, I deleted all the entries in the Quick Launch so that it was basically a completley blank web site and ran the Powershell command again.
Same Error:

How do I get my archived site back into SharePoint so that I can see and use it as I could before I exported and deleted it?

Thanks for your time in viewing this.

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colly92002

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Neil Randall

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Thanks colly

I have already tried the -force parameter (see 5th paragraph above).

I don't quite understand the logic here (not my first misunderstanding of Microsoft logic).

So, my main site (let's call it sharepoint.mysite.co.uk) is built using template STS#0.
All my child sites within this (and there are about 30) are built using a template I created based on STS#1. All their quick launch links are the same, they all have the same web parts and they are all listed in the top menu as Site 001, Site 002, Site 003 and so on (sharepoint.mysite.co.uk/site001, sharepoint.mysite.co.uk/site002 and so on).

Why can I not just export any of these sites (and then delete them, keeping the main site's top menu tidy), but import them back to exactly where they were exported from?

How much easier this would have been, if when designing SharePoint Central Administration Console they allowed you with a few clicks to import as easily as the console allows you to export!