Renaming a PC in Windows 2000 Active Directory

[Guest]

Hi,

One of the PCs on my network had a failing Hard Disk, so it was replaced,
and an image of another PC on the network put onto the new HD. I now have two
PCs with the same name, and wish to give the new PC the same name as the
failing one had. Having tried to change the PC name in Control Panel | System
Properties | Computer Name Change (locally), I got the error message:

The following error occurred attempting to rename the computer to PC01. The
account already exists.

Do I therefore have to remove PC01 from Active Directory on the server, and
then add the new PC01 to the domain? Will that even work - or is there a
better way of doing this?

Many thanks in advance,
Keith

 

[Resonate]

From what you are saying you are trying to rename the PC whilst joined to
the domain.

Disjoin from domain
reboot
change name
deleted name in AD
rejoin to the domain
move newly created computer to appropriate OU after it rejoins (if any)

Cheers

 

[Resonate]

Sorry you should also reboot after changing the name

 

[Guest]

Hi!

Thanks very much - I've followed it through, and got everything working.

Best wishes,
Keith