I recently upgraded a DNN installation on a Windows 2000 Server using MSDE 2000 from version 3.2 to 4.05.01.  Everything is fine with that and works like it did before.  But now I have to move the installation off of that server and onto a Windows 2003 Server running SQL 2005 Express.  I have tried it three times and can't get it to work yet. 

The steps I'm taking are to backup the MSDE database on the old server and copy the backup file to the new server and restore it in SQL 2005 Express, then copy the folder containing the dnn files on the old server to the new server and set up IIS with a virtual directory pointing to the new folder.  I also modify the web.config file in four places as shown in red text. 

Here are the original lines in web.config....

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------

  <connectionStrings>
    <!-- Connection String for SQL Server 2005 Express
    <add
      name="SiteSqlServer"
      connectionString="Data Source=.\SQLExpress;Integrated Security=True;User Instance=True;AttachDBFilename=|DataDirectory|Database.mdf;"
      providerName="System.Data.SqlClient" />
   -->
    <!-- Connection String for SQL Server 2000/2005 -->
    <add name="SiteSqlServer" connectionString="Server=(local);Database=DotNetNuke;uid=dnn;pwd=password;" providerName="System.Data.SqlClient" />
  </connectionStrings>
  <appSettings>
    <!-- Connection String for SQL Server 2005 Express - kept for backwards compatability - legacy modules
    <add key="SiteSqlServer" value="Data Source=.\SQLExpress;Integrated Security=True;User Instance=True;AttachDBFilename=|DataDirectory|Database.mdf;"/>
    -->
    <!-- Connection String for SQL Server 2000/2005 - kept for backwards compatability - legacy modules   -->
    <add key="SiteSqlServer" value="Server=(local);Database=DotNetNuke;uid=dnn;pwd=password;" />
    <add key="InstallTemplate" value="DotNetNuke.install.config" />

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

And here is how I change it for the new server....

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

  <connectionStrings>
    <!-- Connection String for SQL Server 2005 Express   -->
    <add
      name="SiteSqlServer"
      connectionString="Data Source=.\SQLExpress;Integrated Security=True;User Instance=True;AttachDBFilename=|DataDirectory|Database.mdf;"
      providerName="System.Data.SqlClient" />
    <!-- Connection String for SQL Server 2000/2005   

<add name="SiteSqlServer" connectionString="Server=(local);Database=DotNetNuke;uid=dnn;pwd=password;" providerName="System.Data.SqlClient" />
  -->
 </connectionStrings>
  <appSettings>
    <!-- Connection String for SQL Server 2005 Express - kept for backwards compatability - legacy modules    -->
    <add key="SiteSqlServer" value="Data Source=.\SQLExpress;Integrated Security=True;User Instance=True;AttachDBFilename=|DataDirectory|Database.mdf;"/>
    <!-- Connection String for SQL Server 2000/2005 - kept for backwards compatability - legacy modules

    <add key="SiteSqlServer" value="Server=(local);Database=DotNetNuke;uid=dnn;pwd=password;" />

   -->
    <add key="InstallTemplate" value="DotNetNuke.install.config" />

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When I browse to the site on the new server, it goes into the installation wizard.  I have tried to go through the installation wizard and can't get past the SQL server part of it.  I'm wondering why it even goes to the installation wizard in the first place.  Seems to me that it should just start up as it did before.  I feel like I am missing something simple here, but I'm not knowledgeable enough to figure it out, so I am appealing to you experts to please educate me.

Thanks for the reply Sebastian.  Pardon my ignorance, but what do you mean by adopt to the new server?

Ah yes, that makes perfect sense.  That was a total duh on my part.  I should have realized that when I changed to the Express string, it had no idea what the name of the database was or where it was located.  Ok thanks sir.  I will change database.mdf to the full path and filename of the actual restored database and give that a shot.  I won't be able to get to it until tonight, but I will reply back here with the results.  Appreciate your help.