New SBS 2003 Installation

[Frizat]

In doing a brand new installation (not a upgrade) or SBS 2000 to SBS 2003, is there a need to worry about the client computers losing their email/settings, i was under the impression that all of that information was local to the client computer, but a few articles i have read have had me second guessing.
Thanks

[corturbra]

The problems comes with profiles on the client workstations if they have 2000 or XP. At the moment when they log in as joe for example in a domain called ntserver (for example), the workstation will have a profile under Documents and Settings, called joe.ntserver (although you won't see the ntserver bit), when you move them into the new domain and they log in they will become joe.newdomain.

You can transfer their settings out of their existing profile, look for folders like signature, custom.dic, the usual office things. You should also be able to copy out favourites and documents. You might not get everything though and it's usually a lot of work to try.

When I replace servers/domains I make it clear to the customer that they will lose some settings from Office/Desktops/backgrounds etc.

E-mail will obviously need to be setup for the new Exchange.... to save the old ones, login as the user and export everything to a PST file. Once across to the new server simply import the PST. That way all Calendar/contacts/mails etc will be transferred.

***TIP of the DAY **** If they are using Public folders, copy these into a normal mailbox and export to a separate PST, then reverse on the new server. Migration wizards never do the public folders properly.