I hope this is posted in the correct section. We have a small office and are using an HP Proliant server, running WS2003 r2. It has a SCSI Raid controller running 2 40GB drives mirrored. The server is old/slow and so the boss found an HP Blade server with 2 SATA ports. We simply want to transfer the OS to the new server with as little issue as possible. What is the best method? Thanks in advance!

What I would do: Backup your current server using whatever imaging tool you're comfortable with (I recommend imagex, it's available from Microsoft for free (http://www.microsoft.com/download/en/details.aspx?id=5753). Sysprep your existing server (http://support.microsoft.com/kb/892778; http://www.microsoft.com/download/en/details.aspx?id=14830). Take a second image of the current server. Restore the second image onto your new server. You may need to add the drivers into the sysprep process. If all that doesn't work you may wish to rollback. If the sysprep process impacts the functionality of your original server, restore the first backup to the original server.

Hi, What do you mean by saying “transfer the OS to the new server”? You want to install Windows Server 2003 R2 on this server with the old license? Is the old server a domain controller? Do you have any roles, features and applications on it? Do you want to move these roles, features and applications to the new server? How about the SCSI Raid controller? Please be specific on your requirement. Thanks. NinaPlease remember to click Mark as Answer on the post that helps you, and to click Unmark as Answer if a marked post does not actually answer your question. This can be beneficial to other community members reading the thread.