A lot of system files were deleted. Reinstall 2000? 1

[BottleWasher]

Somehow I managed to delete most of the files in my \WINNT folder along with some of the folders AND some files in the subfolders of WINNT. Even some of the files at root were deleted. The 2000 server is the only server in the domain, thus the lone DC. I have yet to restart the server (I am 99% sure it will not boot up if I do so) - I can still access the shares, but when I try to logon to the console or through TS, it acts like it is logging in & then immediately logs me back out (before the desktop appears).

Ok, we do nightly backups, but mainly of the data partition. I *do* backup the System State, but that's about it on the system parition. I am going to go into the office in a little while and see what happens when I restart. I'm thinking I'll try booting up with the 2000 CD and try a repair, but I have doubts that it will work. If that does fail to get the server back up & running, can I reinstall 2000 on the existing installation, restore the System State from Thursday's backup, and be back up & running. I realize I may have to reinstall any 3rd party software that was on this partition. This is my *first* major disaster recovery in an AD domain. Any suggestions/ideas/etc is GREATLY appreciated.

Thanks -
bw

 

[markdmac]

While the server is still running, you can run the Winnt32.exe from the setup CD to reinstall. Then apply SP4 again.



I hope you find this post helpful.

Regards,

Mark

 

[BottleWasher]

I ended up having to format/reload the system partition. There was no way for me to unjoin the workstations from the domain before doing so. The DC is reloaded/set back up using the same domain name, etc. I am now getting the following message in Event Viewer:

the Event ID: 5513 "Event Type: Error
Event Source: NETLOGON
Event Category: None
Event ID: 5513
Date: 8/16/2005
Time: 10:03:40 AM
User: N/A
Computer: <server>
Description:
The computer <username> tried to connect to the server \\<server> using the trust relationship established by the <domain name> domain. However, the computer lost the correct security identifier (SID) when the domain was reconfigured. Reestablish the trust relationship.


How do I reestablish the trust relationship? When I try to unjoin the domain on the workstation, it tells me it can't find the domain and then aborts the process. How do I get these workstations out of the old domain and into the new domain?

Thanks

 

[markdmac]

use Netdom, free resource kit utility from Microsoft.

I hope you find this post helpful.

Regards,

Mark

 

[BottleWasher]

Mark -

Thanks for your help thusfar. I am, however, having trouble with the NETDOM utility. I have never used it before until this incident. I know this is asking you to hold my hand while doing this, but I am desperate to get this done and all the reading, trying, etc that I have done has been fruitless.

This is basically what I need to do:

I have XP workstations that were a member of the domain xxxx.xxxx. The sole DC crashed (there is only 1 server in the entire domain) and I had to reload it. After reloading, I attempted to restore my ArcServe 2000 backups of the DC's system state. After the restore, I restarted the server -- it got to the Windows 2000 splash screen and rebooted. No matter what mode I tried restarting in, I got the same thing -- got to splash screen & then rebooted. Since this network has about 20 workstations, I decided to reformat/reload/re-setup the Active Directory. I named the new domain the same as the old domain (xxxx.xxxx). I also kept the same server name. After that, of course, none of my workstations are members of this "new" domain. When I try to unjoin the domain at the workstation, I get a message (I don't recall the exact wording), but it basically says "Can't find that domain".

So, with all that said, How (and if you could give me an example of the command) do I unjoin an XP workstation from a non-existent 2000 AD domain? Again, I've read & tried many combinations of the NETDOM command to no avail. I am desperate -- the workstations are working, but I now have a lot of flaky problems that I am 100% positive are related to this domain problem.

Thanks again!
Jason a.k.a BottleWasher

 

[Goner05]

If you want BottleWasher you can check out this post for redoing the SID without losing the profile preferences

http://www.tek-tips.com/viewthread.cfm?qid=1105128

Goner05

 

[markdmac]

All of the following should be on one line executed from a command prompt. You need to swap your values for what I have posted in [red]red[/red].

NETDOM JOIN [red]machinename[/red] /Domain:[red]domainname[/red] /UserD:Administrator /PasswordD:[red]domainadminpassword[/red] /UserO:administrator /PasswordO:[red]localadminpassword[/red] /REBoot:30

I hope you find this post helpful.

Regards,

Mark

 

[baldhead]

markdmac,

will that work if you are joining the machine to an identical domain as they were on previously? I will sometimes need to re-install a server and will keep it with the same domain name as before. However the workstations are still looking to the old domain which just so happens to be called the same as the new one. Will NETDOM get past this issue? What must you do to work this out?

thanks

 

[markdmac]

Yes, that should work so long as both domains are not available at the same time.

I hope you find this post helpful.

Regards,

Mark

 

[markdmac]

I thought about that a little more and want to retract my previous post. I believe that what you will need to do is first disjoin from the domain into a workgroup and then join the domain. You can do this all with Netdom and if you perform the join immediately after the disjoin then you can accomplish it all with a single reboot.

I do this when removing an old child domain.

here is a script that will do it. Youneed to modify it for your admin credentials as specified in my earlier post. The timing on this is important so don't mess with that unless you are working over a really slow link.

[script]

strWorkstation = InputBox("What PC do you wish to move?","Select PC")
Call WSHShell.Run("cmd.exe /c NETDOM REMOVE " & strWorkstation &"/Domain:<domain> /UserD:<user> /PasswordD:<password> UserO:<user> /PasswordO:<password> /REBoot:30000")
Wscript.sleep 15000
Call WSHShell.Run("cmd.exe /c NETDOM JOIN " & strWorkstation &"/Domain:<domain> /UserD:<user> /PasswordD:<password> UserO:<user> /PasswordO:<password> /REBoot:0")

[/script]

I hope you find this post helpful.

Regards,

Mark

 

[baldhead]

will this work even if the original domain is not online? If new domain is online and you run this it will join the machines correctly?