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Win2003 Server Std - Recovery or rebuild


happgilmore

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WINDOWS 2003 SERVER STANDARD

error started last week as NVRAM / DRIVE configuration are inconsistent

resolved when went into CTRL M Raid config - Add/View. drive 0.1 brought back online and consistency checked.

all raid drives currently ONLINE. No other recent hardware errors identified when run 'quick' hardware testing.

upon reboot received error NTDETECT FAILED.

created new boot disk to boot to Windows Install for repair of Windows. Unable to perform.

DID TTHE following:

"2. Press ‘R’ when offered the option of using the Windows Recovery Console

Recovery Console will prompt at the command prompt type the following:

C:\WINDOWS >cd system32\

this changes the current directory to C:\Windows\System32

ren config configold

This renames the config folder to configold

mkdir config

this makes a new directory called config

cd config

changes the current directory to c:\Windows\System32\Config

then type the following lines pressing enter after each one

copy c:\windows\repair\system

copy c:\windows\repair\software

copy c:\windows\repair\sam

copy c:\windows\repair\security

copy c:windows\repair\default"

sucessfully booted to Windows install, recognize curr Windows install, and selected to REPAIR the install.

Encountered error: LSASS.EXE Security accounts manager initialization failed b ecause the directory service cannot start. Use recovery console...

Replaced LSASS.exe from dllcache. reboot

error when attempting Directory Services recovery mode.

ERROR: cannot run Windows Setup in Safe Mode.

(also tried Last known good config - but to no avail)

reboot to Recovery console.

replace ntds.dit from install cd.

Reboot. Windows setup is not continuing, message on the screen says WAITING FOR ACTIVE DIRECTORY TO START. and no drives moving, nor does it look like anything happening.

also, on Dell PE 2850 server, the LCD panel has gone back to Amber today - had been blue for last 2 days (althought couldn;t boot) When i checked RAID / and other hardware tests, no errors found.

Where do I go from here? How long should I expect Active Directory to start (rebuild?)

do I just try to get what I can off the server (databases and such) and rebuild, or is this recoverable?

Some files are recently backed up, but no programs. don't want to re-install, if I'm only feet(?) from the finish line.

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You removed the active directory database (ntds.dit) !!!!

What you did is plainly wrong from the begining, you should have imaged the drive/partition then, after the faulty drive was resynced in the raid controller bios, you should have done a chkdsk /r and then it have booted properly (but might not if the raid was destroyed as it seem it was).

Your only option is to restore the drive/partition if you had a backup or try to recover all the missing files.

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Allen2 thanks for your comments.

I foolishly thought that if I removed the database and used the right utility I could rebuild it. I have since found a active directory back up from a while ago, but didn't realize there are several other files that work in conjunction.

Back when the Raid drive rebuilt, there was no option to reboot. As soon as the drive rebuilt, upon reboot I received the NTDetect failed message.

There is a hardware issue on the server as well because (at least when in Windows) USB drive use locks up the server. So I didn't try to clone right away.

From everything I can see the raid is intact - all drives are on line. But the OS has been giving me issues trying to get it to boot again.

Do you think if I replace the ntds.bit and related logs and other files with it, that I can save it.

Or just fresh install windows server (either option would be after cloning the drive).

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To backup the server, you might try to boot from a CD and do the backup through the network.

You should then do the chkdsk /r and be prepared to restore all files that might be deleted if the raid was damaged (sometimes chkdsk /r delete almost everything).

Then restoring the deleted/corrupt files will help and might solve the problem.

All this process might take a long time so perhaps starting from scratch will be faster.

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