This is what I ended up doing. A massive failure...
I first physically removed the current DC of the network. I installed the same OS on the new server, installed Active Directory and named both the server and the Domain, exactly the same as the old server. I then rpopulated some of the users just to test it out. I then put the new server online and tried.
Well, even though the domain is the same name, the new DC could not be found, and the login could therefore not be proceeded.
"Well heck" I thought and even though the Terminal Server is currently a member of the domain with the same name, I again joined the TS to the domain (with the same name). Like always, I had to restart. Once that was done, I could log in with the users. However, a new profile was created upon logging in, which is NOT what I wanted.
So I simply copied everything from the old profile to the new one and tried again. Even though I could log in, absolutely nothing worked. So this plan went to heck.
Try number two:
I copied the System State (which apparently holds all the DC databases and such. I knew from the start that this would be a bad idea since not only DC information is stored in such backup, but also drivers and other things that not even remotely are the same as the new server. I went ahead and did it anyways just to see what happens.
Well all the data from the DC was copied and all the OUs and users appeared. However, no hardware worked since wrong drivers were in use. Since there is no way or reversing this, I ended up having to reinstall Windows from scratch again.
So here I am, completely lost and confused.
I will no go ahead and do what LWComputingMVP suggested and promote the new server in order to get the user data over. But I don;'t really know how to proceed. Do I join the domain with the new server, then installing Active Directories...or the other way around? And once user accounts are copied, do I have to demote the original server? In case something goes wrong, I would be able to revert back to how things were in the beginning.
It is extremely bizarre that there is no tool that ONLY copies over the DC user information, and not the entire system state. The end result would be that users could log in and use their profiles as they always have, without having to recreate the profiles from scratch.
I am very lost and in need of help.
MockY