SAM initialization failed

[Dave]

Hello,

On windows 2000 server, I am getting "lsass.exe - system error" "SAM
initialization failed because of the following errorirectory Services
cannot start. Error Status 0xc00002e1. Check event log for more detail"

After starting in Directory Services Restore Mode, the Directory Service
event log shows event 1168 (error -550(fffffdda) has occurred) and event
1003 (windows ds db could be initialized and returned error -550)

On MSKB, #258007 (and several others) talk about administrators and system
needing full control to c:\winnt\ntds. The permissions are correct (and look
identical to several working servers).

Any thoughts?
Thanks.

 

[Diana Smith [MSFT]]

Hello Dave,

1. Open a command prompt and run NTDSUTIL to verify the paths for the
NTDS.dit file. These should match the physical structure from Step 2.

To check the file paths type the following commmands:

NTDSUTIL <enter>
Files <enter>
Info <enter>

The output should look similar to:

Drive Information:

C:\ NTFS (Fixed Drive ) free(2.9 Gb) total(3.9 Gb)
D:\ NTFS (Fixed Drive ) free(3.6 Gb) total(3.9 Gb)

DS Path Information:

Database : C:\WINNT\NTDS\ntds.dit - 10.1 Mb
Backup dir : C:\WINNT\NTDS\dsadata.bak
Working dir: C:\WINNT\NTDS
Log dir : C:\WINNT\NTDS - 30.0 Mb total
res2.log - 10.0 Mb
res1.log - 10.0 Mb
edb.log - 10.0 Mb

This information is pulled directly from the registry and mismatched paths
will cause Active Directory not to start. Type Quit to end the NTDSUTIL
session.

2. Check the permissions on the Winnt\Sysvol\Sysvol share. The default
permissions are:

NTFS Permissions:
Administrators - Full Control
Authenticated Users - Read & Execute, List Folder Contents, Read
Creator Owner - none
Server Operators - Read & Execute, List Folder Contents, Read
System - Full Control

Note: You may not be able to change the permissions on these folders if he
Active Directory database is unavailable because it is damaged, however it
is best to
know if the permissions are set correctly before you start the recovery
process, as it may not be the database that is the problem.


3. The NTDSUTIL tool needs to be run again to check the Integrity of the
database and to perform a Semantic Database analysis.

To check the integrity, at the command prompt type:

NTDSUTIL <enter>
Files <enter>
Integrity <enter>

The output should tell you that the integrity check completed successfully
and prompt that you should perform a Semantic Database Analysis. Type
quit.

To perform the Semantic Database Analysis type the following at the NTDSUTIL
Prompt type:

Semantic Database Analysis <enter>
Go <enter>

The output will tell you that the Analysis completed successfully. Type
quit and close the command prompt.

NOTE: If you get errors running the Analysis then type the following at the
semantic checker prompt:

semantic checker: go fix <enter>

This puts the checker in Fixup mode, which should fix whatever errors there
were.

12. Reboot the server to Normal Mode.

If any of these steps fail to recover the database the only alternative is
to perform an Authoritative System State restore from backup in Directory
Services
Restore mode.

NOTE: The Sysvol folder located in Winnt\Sysvol will be shared once the
system boots back to normal mode. If there are any further issues, make
sure this
directory is shared and has the following share permissions:

Administrators = Full Control
Authenticated Users = Full Control
Everyone = Read

Thank You.

Diana.

This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no rights.

 

[Dave]

Thank you for your quick, thorough response.

The machine did not get thru your step 3 correctly. It gave the following:

"Opening database [Current].xxx ErrorBInitializeJetDatabase failed with
[database is inconsistent]"
"Error While Doing Soft Recovery"

As per your comment after step 12, it looks like we are out of luck (there
are no backups), unless you know of any other things to try.

Thanks much,
Dave