Migrating Dexis 10 turned out to be pretty easy if you remember to stop the SQL server on both the new and old computers.
This was a migration from Windows 7 desktop to a Windows 8.1 image on VMWare ESXi.
The first step we did was to upgrade Dentrix from G5 to G6 on the old computer. This went without a hitch. In fact it was quicker to update to G6 than it was to go to 5.1. I got the whole office upgraded rather quickly.
The next day I called Dentrix and setup a time with them to migrate the machine. This took a few hours but we didn’t have any issues here either except one. The clients were still looking at the old server. A registry edit took care of that. Basically the directions that they provide are spot on about copying over the files, stopping the old SQL database and then restoring the database. Only difference was they didn’t have me reinstall G6 on the old computer when we were through. I just stopped the Dentrix Server services on the old computer so it could still be used as a client.
For Dexis I tried to just copy the stuff over and then point the clients to the new locations. I thought that worked but the next work day I noticed that the server was still pointing to the old machine. I stopped the SQL service on the old machine and new one. Copied the data file over and then restarted the service on the new machine. The clients picked up the new server beautifully. On the old computer I disabled the service so it wouldn’t show up again.
I loathed Dentrix before but they have come a very long ways. Once Dexis gives the green light I will move the whole office over to Windows 10.