Renaming a Client

[crmayer]

I had a hard drive fail the other day and to get it up and running the fastest I took the hard drive out of an identical computer(0078) on our network and installed it in the original computer(0072).
Of course this changed the computer name from 0072 to 0078.
Now I have a new hard drive and want to put it in the computer(0078) that I took the working drive from, but I need to rename the original(failed) computer from 0078 to 0072. What is the best way to do this?
Both computers are part of a windows 2003 Domain with AD.
I found an article on Microsoft’s web site to rename a computer using netdom.

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/298593/EN-US/

Or, can I just removed 0072 and 0078 from the domain controller, rename 0078 to 0072, then rejoin 0072 to the domain? Then reload 0078 and join it to the domain?

What would be the best practice in this situation?

Thanks in advance.

 

[Davetoo]

I would disjoin it and rejoin it.

I'm Certifiable, not cert-ified.
It just means my answers are from experience, not a book.

There are no more PDC's! There are DC's with FSMO roles!

 

[crmayer]

I do not have to remove or delete that object from the domain controller first?

Or is that how you "disjoin" something from a DC?

 

[Davetoo]

When you move it to a workgroup, it should remove the AD object. If it doesn't, you can go in manually and delete it, yes.

I'm Certifiable, not cert-ified.
It just means my answers are from experience, not a book.

There are no more PDC's! There are DC's with FSMO roles!

 

[jet042]

Disjoining and re-joining is what I usually do as well.

 

[crmayer]

Thank you all for you response, I will give this a shot when I can get to the two computers and see how it works.