Move Windows Shares From One Computer To Another

Question:

How To Move Windows Shares From One Computer To Another?

Answer:

While moving your Windows shares from one computer to another might seem pointless for most people, system administrators see great value in doing it efficiently. It is particularly useful in situations where, we have to move data from an old server to new one, and we want our users to keep on accessing their files through the same virtual locations.

1. Navigate to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE \ SYSTEM \ CurrentControlSet \ Services \ LanmanServer \ Shares.
2. Select the “shares” key and click files -> export. Save this file to the location of your choice.
3. Do the same with the “security” subkey.
4. Copy both files to the new machine.
5. Log in into the new server and double click on the registry files you’ve just created (NOTE: You will lose all previously configured shares on the new system).
6. Reboot the server and the new shares should be there.

Now, the only thing that remains to be done is to modify your login script to point to the new server instead of the old one.

So, if your script contained something like:

NET USE M: \\oldserver\VOLUME1 /YES

Just change \\oldserver to \\newserver and your users won’t even notice their data moved.