Restore Active Directory DC

[free2hidden]

hi,
My Domain Controller is down and no way to do it up, but I have a good backup of System State . How to restore it. I tried to use ntbackup in active directory mode but after I restore the system state it asked me to reboot but click no and opened
- Run -> cmd ->ntdsutil.exe and then pressed ENTER.
- Typed authoritative restore, and then pressed ENTER.
- Typed restore database, pressed ENTER, clicked OK, and then clicked Yes.
but after that the windows continuously rebooted .Any idea.

 

[confus9d]

I've restored my AD in a lab environment couple of times without doing all the steps you performed. Here's what I did:

1. Make sure you have the same logical drives before starting restoration.
2. Restore system state backup. Make sure under options restored data is marked primary.

Not sure which version of windows you're running, but for my Windows 2003, I never ran ntdsutil.exe after restore. This usually worked for me after I rebooted my machine. Now since you mentioned your windows reboots automatically, I would suspect there is a driver/hardware mismatch. If this is the case, you can try one of the following:

1. Don't reboot after the restoration is complete. Go to device manager and update your computer driver and change it to be standard pc. This way windows will get rid of any device specific drivers and load only stadard set which mostly works with any computer. You can also unload any driver that does not apply to the current machine that you're using. This goes for hidden devices as well. Reboot after this and windows will at least load with minimal set of hardware enabled. Then you can update all the drivers.

2. Reboot and do an in place installation of windows. This will retain all your settings but fix all the driver issues or any corrupt registry things like that.

I've tried both and worked for me. It's always something different in each recovery scenarion. Good luck.

 

[free2hidden]

Hi,
I did not found this option " Make sure under options restored data is marked primary " .
where to find it .

 

[confus9d]

After you click Start Restore, you should be getting a message saying restoring system state will overwrite..... When you click ok, you'll get another message Confirm Restore and you'll see a button Advanced..... Clicking on Advanced should give you Advanced Restore Options. You should be checking the box next to When restoring replicated data sets, mark the restored data as the primary.... Hope this helps.