Newbie: Old question with a (slight) twist

We have SQL Server 6.5 installed on an old server. We want to move this to a
new server, keeping everything the same. Looking through past posts and the
web, the easiest method seems to be installing SQL Server on the new machine,
stopping SQL services and copying folders from the old server to the new
(that's a v.brief summary from http://vyaskn.tripod.com/moving_sql_server.htm)
The old server has 2 drives, SQL Server installed on C and Data, Backups and
Logs on D. The new server (you guessed it!) has just a C drive. It is already
in use so can't be reformatted and partitioned with C and D drives.
If we copy the data from oldserver/D to newserver/C, what would we have to
change to get the new SQL installation to recognise that Data, Backups and
Logs are now on the C drive?
Apologies if this seems simple or ignorant to some, we all have to start
somewhere.
Swaffs wrote:
> We have SQL Server 6.5 installed on an old server. We want to move
> this to a new server, keeping everything the same. Looking through
> past posts and the web, the easiest method seems to be installing SQL
> Server on the new machine, stopping SQL services and copying folders
> from the old server to the new (that's a v.brief summary from
> http://vyaskn.tripod.com/moving_sql_server.htm)
> The old server has 2 drives, SQL Server installed on C and Data,
> Backups and Logs on D. The new server (you guessed it!) has just a C
> drive. It is already in use so can't be reformatted and partitioned
> with C and D drives.
I assume that as you will need to install SQL Server and configure it, you
don't mind having a little downtime on this machine. Have you considered
using PartitionMagic to repartition the machine without having to reformat
so it has 2 drives like the old one?
Dan
|||Thanks Dan,
Using something like PartitionMagic did cross my mind but there's always a
chance something might go wrong and it also seemed a bit of an unelegant way
of resolving the problem.
Any other ideas?
|||Comments below:

> The old server has 2 drives, SQL Server installed on C and Data, Backups and
> Logs on D. The new server (you guessed it!) has just a C drive. It is already
> in use so can't be reformatted and partitioned with C and D drives.
> If we copy the data from oldserver/D to newserver/C, what would we have to
> change to get the new SQL installation to recognise that Data, Backups and
> Logs are now on the C drive?
Use backup and restore. Note that for the old architecture (6.5 and earlier), backup and restore
isn't as dead-easy as it is in the new architecture. So make sure you understand database devices,
databases, database fragments (sysusages), sp_help_revdatabase etc before doing this.
Tibor Karaszi, SQL Server MVP
http://www.karaszi.com/sqlserver/default.asp
http://www.solidqualitylearning.com/
"Swaffs" <Swaffs@.discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
news:AD066E9F-02DF-4EE9-BA17-BFA5F8A810BF@.microsoft.com...
> We have SQL Server 6.5 installed on an old server. We want to move this to a
> new server, keeping everything the same. Looking through past posts and the
> web, the easiest method seems to be installing SQL Server on the new machine,
> stopping SQL services and copying folders from the old server to the new
> (that's a v.brief summary from http://vyaskn.tripod.com/moving_sql_server.htm)
> The old server has 2 drives, SQL Server installed on C and Data, Backups and
> Logs on D. The new server (you guessed it!) has just a C drive. It is already
> in use so can't be reformatted and partitioned with C and D drives.
> If we copy the data from oldserver/D to newserver/C, what would we have to
> change to get the new SQL installation to recognise that Data, Backups and
> Logs are now on the C drive?
> Apologies if this seems simple or ignorant to some, we all have to start
> somewhere.
|||"Swaffs" <Swaffs@.discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
news:D109559F-501E-48E7-8B80-A5F679AF30FC@.microsoft.com...
> Thanks Dan,
> Using something like PartitionMagic did cross my mind but there's always a
> chance something might go wrong and it also seemed a bit of an unelegant
> way
> of resolving the problem.
In all the years I've been using PM to adjust desktop and server
partitioning, I've only had 1 failure - and that was my own fault, I had PM
doing a check and stupidly turned the power off on the desktop as it was
taking too long, and a check must include some writing to the disk. Luckily
I'd backed it up a few mins prior to running the PM check ;)

> Any other ideas?
As Tibor suggested, backup on the old server and restore on the new one
should do it.
Dan
|||Thanks guys. That's what I'll look at next.
"Tibor Karaszi" wrote:

> Comments below:
>
> Use backup and restore. Note that for the old architecture (6.5 and earlier), backup and restore
> isn't as dead-easy as it is in the new architecture. So make sure you understand database devices,
> databases, database fragments (sysusages), sp_help_revdatabase etc before doing this.
> --
> Tibor Karaszi, SQL Server MVP
> http://www.karaszi.com/sqlserver/default.asp
> http://www.solidqualitylearning.com/
>
> "Swaffs" <Swaffs@.discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
> news:AD066E9F-02DF-4EE9-BA17-BFA5F8A810BF@.microsoft.com...
>
>