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oldSkool-Soldier
Asked: 2009-08-24 22:47:24 +0800 CST

Upgrade / Migration - Windows 2000 Pro -> Windows XP

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This is an odd one, but please bear with me. I need to upgrade a system from Windows 2000 SP-3 to Windows XP. It's not just an OS upgrade though - it's also a Hardware upgrade - New box, Sata RAID, more ram etc. This system is used as a 'server' for a specialised piece of software - uses a MSSQL system, which has a heap of information and databases that would probably be a pain to move and set up from scratch.

I've gone so far as ghosting the original system to the new hard drives (Single drives, no RAID), Repairing Windows 2000, Upgrading to XP - but some services don't want to start and parts of the system don't work properly.

Is there an 'easier' way of transferring the entire setup from one system to another? ie. by way of a program on the market? Or do I have to somehow build system from scratch, and import all the databases - which is time consuming?

Thanks for your help in advance :)

migration windows-xp windows-2000

4 Answers

  1. Best Answer

    Backup Exec System Recovery (link) will let you image a server and restore it to different hardware. It strips the HAL from the image before restoring it, which might help the Windows 2000 server better adjust to the new hardware. You could try using that to move the Windows 2000 server to the new hardware (just remember to shutdown as many services as you can before you start the backup).

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  2. The best method would be to do a complete clean install on the new box and transfer the existing database across. The simplest way to move the databases would be to detach them all of the original server and re-attach them to the new server.

    The change in hardware and the new environment is going to cause more headaches then what it is worth.

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  3. I agree on the clean install. But, how about doing the software upgrade first on the old hardware then do the migration to new hardware?

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  4. You could migrate the system to new hardware and then perform the OS upgrade but it's almost guaranteed you will have no end of trouble afterwards. I agree with the others - do a clean install. As you are changing hardware as well you can run the two in parallel until you are certain the new system is ready to go.

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