DC with hard drive issues

[DonnaJ]

I know this group is for 2000, but I read it all the time and I can't find
one on here for 2003.

I have a Windows 2003 DC that is having hard drive issues. To start with one
of the drives was having to be rebuilt everytime it was rebooted. Now one of
the drives has a red x on it and the server doesn't come all the way back up.
They are scsi drives. They is my first time working with scsi drives so
please bare with me.

By not coming all the way up, I mean when you boot it, you get the F1, F2
options for one of the drives and I choose F1 and the server's screen goes
black with the splash screen ( rebuilting the drive i suppose) but that's it.
I can ping the server by ip and I can access the hard drive using run
\\server ip\c$.... Don't know what that tells you but I hoping one of you can
help.

Going to replace the hard drive we have been having to rebuilt, before this
started. I was also going to demote the server from a DC to a file server
and just leave DNS on it. It's not the master nor does it run any of the 5
roles. It is used for DNS and is a DC and we have shares and have file
replication set up. Since this server went down with are having problems with
the master DC running slow and lots of DFS Replication errors and sysvol
errors. But that's another tread. I'll address this once I get this under
control.

Any info would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks in Advance,
Donna

 

[Danny Sanders]

I would move the DNS to the remaining DC. Point the remaining DC to itself
for DNS in the properties of TCP/IP and point all AD clients to the new DNS
server.

Once things are working smoothly after the DNS move (Master DC no longer
running slow) I would remove the problem DC from the domain and rebuild it
from tape.
See:
http://www.petri.co.il/delete_failed_dcs_from_ad.htm
or
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/216498

hth
DDS

 

[DonnaJ]

We have 8 DC running DNS. And for this tread, i'm trying to gather info on
the DC that is having hard drive issue. I don't understand how i can get into
it from run and access files, but it will not come up so you can login or
demote it. Are remove DNS for that matter.

I think some of the problems on the master are caused by replacation and
are caused by the DC that's giving me problems. I would really like to get it
back up so I can demote it properly.

Thanks,
Donna

 

[Hank Arnold (MVP)]

We have 8 DC running DNS. And for this tread, i'm trying to gather info on
the DC that is having hard drive issue. I don't understand how i can get into
it from run and access files, but it will not come up so you can login or
demote it. Are remove DNS for that matter.

I think some of the problems on the master are caused by replacation and
are caused by the DC that's giving me problems. I would really like to get it
back up so I can demote it properly.

Thanks,
Donna

If all you want it to demote it gracefully, don't bother. Force a
demotion and do a cleanup.

--

Regards,
Hank Arnold
Microsoft MVP
Windows Server - Directory Services

 

[Danny Sanders]

If all you want it to demote it gracefully, don't bother. Force a demotion

and do a cleanup.

Those articles will show you how to do a clean up. You may be in a position
where trying to demote it gracefully is not an option and tinkering around
with trying to gracefully demote it might be doing more harm to your AD
domain than it's worth.

hth
DDS

 

[DonnaJ]

I would like keep it on the network as as file server, with DHCP and DNS
running on it.

Anyway, I ordered two new hard drives today. I'm going to try to replace the
drives and see if that will take care of it or at lease get it up. I'm going
to phyically remove it from the network while I replace them. If it goes bad.
I'll keep it off till I get it fixed and force a demotion. Any advice on
replacing the drives? They are hot swap. So I should be able to just replace
and rebuild, but since it appears I've got trouble with two of them, I'm not
sure. Does it matter which one I try first? The DC is at a remote location,
so I have only trouble shooted it from a distance.

Thx,
Donna