Migrating settings and data is more common on clients. For servers, I suggest you just setup new server along side and copy the data over manually. You don't say much about the 2003 server .... is it a domain controller? If so then added the 2008 server as a domain controller and the Active Directory stuff will replicate over, you can demote the old server and decommission it. Make sure you transfer the FSMO roles over in this situation.
I've used Jeff Middletons stuff at SBSMigration (ITProExperts) a few times with success tho mainly on SBS migrations. Given your doing just Windows things should be a lot simpler. Without knowing what's on the server a simple process of: build W2008, join domain, robocopy data across network, migrate share setup & perms inc printers (MS have a util for this), test, dcpromo (decommision) old server, promote domain to native 2008. As you joined the domain all the Group Policy, users, login scripts, etc were copied automatically. Lotsa stuff to tweak the W2008 way but this is essentially it. HTH
Its family small business, they had someone 7+ years ago setup their network, about 5 computers. They wanted me to try upgrading/fixing it lol so I was expecting Server 2003 but I plugged a monitor into the "server" computer and found its running Windows XP Pro, named itself Server01, has things like Quickbooks installed and Acronis backup... its working right now but the fan is really noisy, hardware is Pentium 4, 1gb ram 200gb hard drive RAID setup i'd like to keep it intact incase the new hardware doesn't play along, also saw 1394 network along side and googled to see Windows 7 doesn't support that anylonger... maybe something like Ssaeth recommended with Acronis Universal Restore might be easiest or I could try installing Windows Server 2008 R2 but not sure how that will effect other computers as I've never even used Windows Server OS...ya im a newb here
Maybe you should not be doing this. Your first install should not be sombodys live business setup with financial data...
lol I know but for some reason my Uncle believes i'm some computer wizz maybe because I'm being honest when he thinks i'm being modest
Do yourself a favour and don't get into this mess if you don't know what your doing. I've seen far to many f**k ups by inexperienced people trying to install a Windows setup when they have no idea about "real" windows networking.
I think i figured out how to do this kind of easy and keep their software setup the same while on new hardware since its already bought $400 (G3258 3.2ghz, 2x2gb ram, H97M-HD3, 2x1tb drive, antec 500w power supply). Basically going to convert current xp pro "server" running quickbooks 2009 to a virtual machine using free tools like Disk2VHD or VirtualXP. Then install Windows 7 or 8 or maybe even Windows Server 2008 R2 and run old system in Hyper-V, both systems in tandem. I'm more familiar using VMWare though and heard they also have a way to convert running XP system to their VM format so still deciding which to use. I've tried Acronis Universal Restore but wasn't having luck testing with my home system and newly built system and If i did go that route i'd still be stuck with Windows XP as the main operating system on newer hardware, seems like a waste. The Other option would be to Install a fresh Windows 7, 8 or Server 2008 R2 and import/migrate quickbooks 2009 into a newer installed and supported quickbooks but then i'd have to learn quickbooks a bit more. Lastly still need to figure out the backup process or maybe just let the system inside of virtual machine handle it like it always has while backing up the Virtual Machine image to a usb drive....
update sort of, played around with Hyper V a few days and its slow especially on the a machine running an Asus VIVOPC (running 8.1 with bing so found a key to turn it pro so i could install hyperv but pro wasn't activated and hyperv ran slow anyway) Using VMWare player instead which runs the virtual machine fast. I heard talk about HyperV being faster but I think this is for Real servers with 32gb of ram and 16+ Processors and dedicated to running HyperV, i was running it locally instead of dedicated server running it. As far as creating VHD's, Disk2VHD is good, VirtualXp sucks - don't recommend downloading that if you plan to use HyperV VMWare has their own format and tool to create images of running systems, Vcenter Converter, its larger to download but seems to do the same thing as Disk2VHD just makes it compatible with VMWare formats. Need to get the "server" now running this and should be good but will also play around with newer version of Quickbooks to see if i could go that route later as its probably faster than running Virtual Machines.