<div>
Swapping the drives wont work. What I would do is install Windows 2003 Server on your new server and then add the new server as a DC to your domain. &nbsp;Once you have done this, Active Directory will reside on this DC as well as the other box. Next, set up your services, DNS etc. If you are using DHCP, you can use the DHCP migration tool available at Microsoft's site. Once all your services are set up and running correctly, you will need to transfer the FSMO roles from the old box to the new box. Then you can demote the other server (if you wish). However I would recommend having at a minimum two DC's for redundancy.
</div>


Swapping the drives wont work. What I would do is install Windows 2003 Server on your new server and then add the new server as a DC to your domain.  Once you have done this, Active Directory will reside on this DC as well as the other box. Next, set up your services, DNS etc. If you are using DHCP, you can use the DHCP migration tool available at Microsoft's site. Once all your services are set up and running correctly, you will need to transfer the FSMO roles from the old box to the new box. Then you can demote the other server (if you wish). However I would recommend having at a minimum two DC's for redundancy.

<div>
<div class="content wysiwyg-content">
I recently setup a windows 2003 server with Exchange server. I did this on an older computer and it's pretty slow. I purchased a new server last week and I need some assistance migrating everything over. Basically, if I could swap the hard drives, that's what I would do. I don't need anything else to be different except hardware. Any suggestions on where I should start?
</div>
</div>


I recently setup a windows 2003 server with Exchange server. I did this on an older computer and it's pretty slow. I purchased a new server last week and I need some assistance migrating everything over. Basically, if I could swap the hard drives, that's what I would do. I don't need anything else to be different except hardware. Any suggestions on where I should start?

System Migration

Windows Server 2003 was based on Windows XP and was released in four editions: Web, Standard, Enterprise and Datacenter. It also had derivative versions for clusters, storage and Microsoft’s Small Business Server. Important upgrades included integrating Internet Information Services (IIS), improvements to Active Directory (AD) and Group Policy (GP), and the migration to Automated System Recovery (ASR).