We recently replaced our existing Windows Home Server with the newer model from HP.  I thought I’d post the steps here that I took migrating from our old unit to the new one.

• Picked one of my home computers as the system to "move" to the new server
• Shutdown all of the other computers on our network to avoid any updates or conflicts
• Ran the EX485 setup process on that system naming the new server NEWSERVER
• Setup the same set of users and passwords on the EX485 that were on the EX470
• Ran the "Remove Disk" process on the EX470 removing one of our 500GB drives
• Moved the 500GB drive over to the EX485
• Created the additional shares on the EX485 to match those I created on the EX470
• Opened a window to the "Shared Folders on Server" on NEWSERVER
• On the same computer opened a second window to the EX470, named ECLIPSE, using the standard network convention \\ECLIPSE
• I then proceeded to copy the contents of each share from the EX470 to the EX485
• Once the copy was completed I then went through the process of removing our remaining 500GB hard drive from the EX470 and moving it to the EX485
• I then logged into the EX470 directly using "Remote Desktop Connection"
• I then right-mouse-clicked on "My Computer" and selected Properties from the pop-up menu
• I then clicked on the Computer Name tab and then the Change button on that page
• I renamed our EX470 OLDSERVER and followed the prompts to reboot the system
• Once I confirmed the EX470 rebooted under the new name and there were no issues I shut it down and removed it from the network
• With the migration from the EX470 complete I then logged into the EX485 directly using "Remote Desktop Connection"
• I proceeded with the same steps I used on the EX470 and renamed the EX485 from NEWSERVER to ECLIPSE and followed the prompts to reboot
• Once the EX485 rebooted, I then went to "\\ECLIPSE\Software\Home Server Connector Software" and reran the connector setup on the system I had been using
• I then opened the WHS console and turned on folder duplication so that my data would start replicating across all of my drives again
• Now that the migration was complete, folder duplication was on, and my main desktop was "talking" with the EX485 I proceeded to go to each of our remaining systems and rerun the Home Server Connector setup.  Each system successfully reestablished a connection with the "new" ECLIPSE and were added to the backup process

In the end, everything worked out like a champ.  Even my Zune was happy as it found all of it's music without issue since it was configured to look for \\ECLIPSE\MUSIC for its information.  The best part is, the EX470 was sitting on the shelf completely intact, so I could go back to it if I had to.

Overall, the process was more tedious than painful.  Granted, I had the luxury of not being at a point where my drives were so full that I was able to migrate them.  If they had been, then I would have been looking at additional expense purchasing more drives for the EX485.  I'm glad I made the upgrade as I can definitely tell the difference when accessing the server remotely and in day-to-day use.  I also signed up for Amazon's S3 service through the new interface on the WHS console and our photo's are now being backed up to it.  If you haven't checked the service out yet, but were thinking of doing so, they are having an anniversary sale through July, where initial data uploads are only .03/GB versus the normal .10/GB so it's a great time to do your initial backups where you generally have the largest amount of data to move.

I hope this write-up will help someone else out in their migration.