Some advice please.
 

I plan to move from a older linux box to a new faster Windows box.....

How would I go about backing up my databases? and moving my forum?

thank you for any advice and if you know of any problems I may encounter?

Are you sure running Windows is going to be faster? ;) Why not stick to a form of unix?

I have to agree with Erwin, what are you reasons for moving to windows? Do you need something that is not supported under *nix?

My linux education is lacking.... and I love my remote access on another windows server that I run...

They are not good enough reasons to run a server off Windows IMHO. Linux is not that hard to learn at all. If you're lazy you can use a control panel like cPanel. But you will learn to love the command prompt. :)

whats a good website with tutorials... for server maintenance....

Depends on the OS. I recommend FreeBSD, which is easy to use, but you need to be familiar with UNIX prompts. Otherwise, Centos with cPanel if you really want automation and a GUI-type interface - hardly need to SSH at all. Do a Google search once you decide on the OS.

I have linux now just don't know the flavor... with cpanel... at ev1....

At ev1, it's either Red Hat 4 or FreeBSD 5.x