The target principle name is incorrect

[janstem]

The target principle name is incorrect.

It seemed simple! All I wanted to do was backup win 2000
server (sp4) and restore it to a larger hard disk.
Obviously some files were in use and so would not backup,
well all those have now been found an installed to the
correct locations on the restored hard drive. But.. I am
left with the following active directory message. (I know
everyone else will know the answer but at the present I
am very tired having spent many hours trying to stumble
on the solution.)

Message.
Naming information cannot be located because:
The target principle name is incorrect.
Contact your system administrator to verify that your
domain is properly configured and is currently on line.

There is no point further talking to "system
administrator" I've gone mad talking to myself already!

 

[Aimme Lirette MSFT]

This usually means that the machine account for the domain controller needs
to be reset.

Here is an article that describes this process:
Follow the part of the article under this section:
Using Netdom to Reset a Machine Account Password
------------------------------------------------
http://support.microsoft.com/?id=260575


You may also want to check out these articles:
http://support.microsoft.com/?id=288167

http://support.microsoft.com/?id=328917

Thank you,
Aimme Lirette