Recover Active Directory

[Samatha R]

here is my story in a nutshell of how a simple task turned into a nightmare


I simply wanted to add an external PowerVault backup to our PowerEdge 2600
server running Windows 2003, the newly installed PowerVault showed up fine
during POST as well as the OS but neither Veritas nor Ntbackup was able to
complete a successful backup to this device i got different variations of
error messages that basically said that there is an hardware failure, after
hours and hours on the phone with Dell and after replacing all the hardware
we concluded that the issue is directly related to the OS...here is my
problem, at one point of rebooting the server for the hundred time i got the
BSOD during bootup and it rebooted automatically so i got stuck in a loop,
im unable to see the error message because the blue screen appears for only
about a half a second before it reboots, i tried booting up with every
available option with no luck, Safe mode, Last good known configuration...so
I decided to boot to the recovery console (i wasn't even sure why), I
inserted the Dell reinstall OS CD, i hit F8 for the license agreement and
waited for the menu to show up, Install, repair etc.. but to my surprise it
automatically started setup (coping filed needed for setup) without me
touching anything, i decided to let it go i just hopped that its not wiping
my data, the end results was a parallel installation to D:\windows, the
original C and all my data on the D wasn't touched and the PowerVault was
working perfectly fine on the new install, so my question is...

1) how do I get back my AD for about 100 users considering that I don't have
a system state backup?
2) is it possible to just copy over some files from the sysvol?
3) should I focus on repairing the original install (how??) and create a
system state backup?
3) if some windows files or registry are corrupt on the original and that
caused the whole PowerVault issue will a system state restore bring along
those effected files and keys?

Thanks

 

[Manny Borges]

answers in line

--
Manny Borges
MCSE NT4-2003 (+ Security)
MCT, Certified Cheese Master

The pen is mightier than the sword, and considerably easier to write with.
-- Marty Feldman

here is my story in a nutshell of how a simple task turned into a
nightmare


I simply wanted to add an external PowerVault backup to our PowerEdge 2600
server running Windows 2003, the newly installed PowerVault showed up
fine during POST as well as the OS but neither Veritas nor Ntbackup was
able to complete a successful backup to this device i got different
variations of error messages that basically said that there is an hardware
failure, after hours and hours on the phone with Dell and after replacing
all the hardware we concluded that the issue is directly related to the
OS...here is my problem, at one point of rebooting the server for the
hundred time i got the BSOD during bootup and it rebooted automatically so
i got stuck in a loop, im unable to see the error message because the blue
screen appears for only about a half a second before it reboots, i tried
booting up with every available option with no luck, Safe mode, Last good
known configuration...so I decided to boot to the recovery console (i
wasn't even sure why), I inserted the Dell reinstall OS CD, i hit F8 for
the license agreement and waited for the menu to show up, Install, repair
etc.. but to my surprise it automatically started setup (coping filed
needed for setup) without me touching anything, i decided to let it go i
just hopped that its not wiping my data, the end results was a parallel
installation to D:\windows, the original C and all my data on the D wasn't
touched and the PowerVault was working perfectly fine on the new install,
so my question is...

1) how do I get back my AD for about 100 users considering that I don't
have a system state backup?

Can you make a system state backup to the local disk then copy the back up
off the machine?

Alternately, if its only 100 users I am assumin that you don't have a ton of
groups either. If you are solely concerned about the AD and want to just
blow it away and start fresh you can do use some command line tools to pull
out the users then push them back in later:

csvde
http://www.microsoft.com/technet/pr...DAM/e1e94278-87b5-4394-af49-db07143be6f7.mspx
ldifde
http://www.microsoft.com/technet/pr...DAM/e1e94278-87b5-4394-af49-db07143be6f7.mspx
addusers tool
http://www.ss64.com/nt/addusers.html

Computers would need to be rejoined. I have seen some nifty scripts out
there, just google em. Adding 100 workstation (if they are in one local) is
quick and easy to do manually or assign a few potato heads with
instructions.

2) is it possible to just copy over some files from the sysvol?

Technically....yes. I have never made it work. I wouldn't worry about it.

3) should I focus on repairing the original install (how??) and create a
system state backup?

You can do an inplace upgrade
http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=816579

3) if some windows files or registry are corrupt on the original and that
caused the whole PowerVault issue will a system state restore bring along
those effected files and keys?

Does powerVault work now?
Have you run utils like checkdisk?