I have seen how you backup and restore GC2 panels and the process invovled.
Is it possible to load all the z-wave devices prior to the restore? This way the panel is portable and I can go around to all the zwave devices while it is unmounted
The backup restore process does not affect Z-wave devices and cannot restore them, however yes since it does not affect the device list you should be able to go ahead and learn in the network prior to swapping out the module and having a restore pushed.