Upgrading SQL 2005 Express to SQL 2012 Express on new server

Install a new instance on SQL Express 2012 on the new server (you do know that 2014 is available, right). Then back up the databases on the SQL 2005 database and restore them onto the new instance you installed.

You will have to manually move anything outside of the database such as logins, linked servers, SQL jobs, etc. For the logins, I recommend using my copy login script to make sure the SQL authenticated logins are using the same password and have the same security identifier (SID). As you will see, I specifically wrote this for use with database mirroring, but it can be used any time you want it to copy logins from one server to another. It also handles server role memberships and any explicitly granted server-level permissions:

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