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Help! I want to pay for windows, but not this much windows.

Quasmo

Diamond Member
Ok so I go to work for this guy on his server. He has windows 2003 EE installed illegally by someone who worked there before me. It's now past the 60 day activation period and he wants to buy it, the problem is he only needs small business server 2003. Is there anyway to get it to work without having to pay for the enterprise edition considering he is only one guy with 5 computers, and is willing to pay for it.

EDIT: he doesn't want to reinstall
 
Re-installing is the only alternative. You can't downgrade from Enterprise Edition to a lower edition. Practically speaking, the re-install time is trivial compared to the time to configure an office to use SBS.

If you want to maintain the Active Directory structure (accounts, etc.), you could do it with a Swing Migration and a 2nd computer as a temporary second DC, but I doubt it's worth the effort for a 5-person company. If they already have a Domain set up, you may want to migrate User Profiles on the client PCs. Be sure to read up on how to do that BEFORE you actually remove the client PCs from the old Domain.

Dell has a small server with SBS 2003 R2 pre-installed (but still requiring configuration) for $850 (with two SATA 80GB drives in RAID 1 configuration) this week.

Dell SC440 with dual 80GB SATA drives in RAID 1 configuration and SBS 2003 R2 pre-installed.

Actually, it's kewl that Dell has added a "cheap" SATA RAID controller option to the SC4xx models. They dropped it when they discontinued the SC420, making this model virtually a non-contender for even tiny businesses. By the time you added Dell's CERC RAID controller, the price came out the same as the larger PE830 or PE1800 models.

Finally:
If you are going to configure SBS 2003, be sure to get a book on how to do it correctly. If you've never done it before, the odds are pretty high of making mistakes that can reduce its functionality and be costly to fix. It's not "hard" to do, but you need to know the "right" answers to the configuration questions. Harry Brelsford's SBS 2003 Best Practices book, available for $40 or so on Amazon, is good for a first-time configuration.
 
Originally posted by: RebateMonger
Re-installing is the only alternative. You can't downgrade from Enterprise Edition to a lower edition.

If you want to maintain the Active Directory structure (accounts, etc.), you could do it with a Swing Migration and a 2nd computer as a temporary second DC, but I doubt it's worth the effort for a 5-person company.

And.. I would make a piracy report on the previous person that installed the illegal software.
Microsoft might give you a discount! 😛
 
Originally posted by: InlineFive
It might not be illegal, maybe the person just used the trial version and forgot to mention it. 😉
Yeah, there's no reason to suspect it's "illegal". Server 2003 Enterprise Edition Trials are available for free download. But they are good for 180 days last time I checked.

Unfortunately, they don't really come with a warning about not being able to "downgrade" them to Windows 2003 Standard Edition.
 
Originally posted by: Quasmo
Well at the moment he cant access his files and he needs to get his stuff asap.
You'll have to put the drive into another PC or a USB housing and take ownership of the data files.
 
Originally posted by: jlbenedict
Originally posted by: Quasmo
What are the main differences between Sever 2003 and SBS 2003?

SBS 2003 includes Exchange..

Others will more experience will be able to finish off my answer 🙂

I just need to make sure I can access drives over 2TB and I need Mac protocols as well.
 
Originally posted by: RebateMonger
Originally posted by: Quasmo
Well at the moment he cant access his files and he needs to get his stuff asap.
You'll have to put the drive into another PC or a USB housing and take ownership of the data files.

LOL... it's a 6 drive 2.5 TB RAID.
 
Originally posted by: Quasmo
I just need to make sure I can access drives over 2TB and I need Mac protocols as well.
All Server 2003 versions, including SBS, can do that.

If you set up a new domain, be sure not to call it xxxx.local, if you are using Macs. I prefer .LAN.
 
Originally posted by: RebateMonger
Originally posted by: Quasmo
I just need to make sure I can access drives over 2TB and I need Mac protocols as well.
All Server 2003 versions, including SBS, can do that.

If you set up a new domain, be sure not to call it xxxx.local, if you are using Macs. I prefer .LAN.

Why is that such an issue?
 
Originally posted by: Quasmo
Originally posted by: RebateMonger
Originally posted by: Quasmo
Well at the moment he cant access his files and he needs to get his stuff asap.
You'll have to put the drive into another PC or a USB housing and take ownership of the data files.

LOL... it's a 6 drive 2.5 TB RAID.

this gets funnier by the post

if the OS is on a separate partition than the files, boot up with whatever version of windows you have on hand, install it and then take ownership of the files

 
Originally posted by: InlineFive
Originally posted by: RebateMonger
If you set up a new domain, be sure not to call it xxxx.local, if you are using Macs. I prefer .LAN.
Why is that such an issue?
Some versions of the MAC OS regard the .LOCAL extension as "special", and require fixes to make them work in a Domain named xxxx.LOCAL. It's best to just avoid the whole problem and name the Domain ANYTHING other than .LOCAL (and .COM, .NET, etc., of course).
 
Originally posted by: alent1234
this gets funnier by the post
Yeah. I'm out of here. Good luck!

P.S. If you catch an auction before it gets cancelled by eBay, you can often find Windows Server 2003 Enterprise Edition "Not-for-Resale" version for less than $1000. Don't ask me if it's "illegal", cuz' I don't know.
 
Originally posted by: alent1234
Originally posted by: Quasmo
Originally posted by: RebateMonger
Originally posted by: Quasmo
Well at the moment he cant access his files and he needs to get his stuff asap.
You'll have to put the drive into another PC or a USB housing and take ownership of the data files.

LOL... it's a 6 drive 2.5 TB RAID.

this gets funnier by the post

if the OS is on a separate partition than the files, boot up with whatever version of windows you have on hand, install it and then take ownership of the files

Yes the files are on a seperate set of drives. It's a RAID 5. I can't boot to XP because it doesn't recognize files over 2.5 terabytes
 
Originally posted by: Quasmo
Yes the files are on a seperate set of drives. It's a RAID 5. I can't boot to XP because it doesn't recognize files over 2.5 terabytes
So, you download another EE Trial Edition, install it somewhere, and install the RAID array......

Then you fix your server problem.

BTW...did you actually TRY "activating" the trial version? You CAN activate it with the Trial Key provided. After that, you have a total of 180 days to get a "permanent" Key.
 
Originally posted by: Quasmo
Originally posted by: RebateMonger
Originally posted by: Quasmo
Well at the moment he cant access his files and he needs to get his stuff asap.
You'll have to put the drive into another PC or a USB housing and take ownership of the data files.

LOL... it's a 6 drive 2.5 TB RAID.

dang!

Gonna have to burn that to CD then. 😛
 
Originally posted by: jlbenedict


I thought in your OP, you mentioned that the server needs SBS?
I called Microsoft
SBS is literally Server 2003 standard edition bundled with exchange server, and has a limit of 75 users. Server 2003 EE is even better than SBS and has no limit.

That item from Staples is selling on E-bay for $900 something doesn't seem right.
 
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