User Profile issue when reinstalled Server 2008 and kept DC the same

[MASolutions]

Hello,

We replaced a new hard drive in a S2008 R2 server as we suspected the existing hard drive was failing.

It was a fresh install of Server 2008 R2, and setup the DC using the the previous DC name (i.e. xyz.local). We did not use any special 'migration tools'.

Here is the problem:
When we logged into an XP workstation (WS), (we had not changed anything in the domain settings, since we did not change the name), in the eventvwr, it was giving us errors in the logs indicating there were issues with the current DC (i.e. sending WS information to the DC because the values were different (or something to that effect), etc...), and after doing some research, it was suggested to remove the WS from domain and it bring to a 'workgroup', reboot, and re-join the domain.

After doing this, the user profile has changed, it when to its default state, as if it were logging in for the first time, and the previous profile which was stored locally, however accessing the previous hard drive, appears inaccessible.

We have checked the 'User profiles' menu and it states "Account Unknown".

Question: How do we successfully "restore" the profiles on the new domain (even though the name has not changed), or do we ignore the errors in the eventvwr and keep the WS's as is?

I appreciate your responses!

Thanks!

 

[Mshen]

I think you have just installed a new domain, the SIDs and GUIDs are different from the previous domain/forest.

you probably create new profiles, then copy things over from old profile. if the old profiles can't be opened, you have to take ownership of the folder (NTFS permissions)

Michael

 

[58sniper]

Just as important, but why was the server rebuilt? Do you not have RAID for your OS volume on your domain controller (that's a HUGE best practice)? Do you not have multiple domain controllers (another HUGE best practice)?

By rebuilding your only (apparent) DC, you've essentially destroyed your domain.

Pat Richard MVP
Plan for performance, and capacity takes care of itself. Plan for capacity, and suffer poor performance.

http://www.exchangeblogs.com/

 

[MASolutions]

Hi Pat,

The previous hard drive was failing (occasional freezes) and suspected it contained bad sectors. We did not clone it's image, nor did we setup RAID. Lesson learned, obviously. It is only 1 DC, as it is a small practice (6 or 7 workstations). I am not familiar with setting up more than 1 domain.

Back to my original question, do you happen to know a solution in preserving the pre-existing profiles, which formerly connected to xyz.local?

Thank you for the responses.

 

[MASolutions]

Michael,

Thank you for your response. How may I go about: "take ownership of the folder"?

 

[Mshen]

Hi

you mentioned you can't access the previous hard drive. this could be NTFS permission problem. you can add full control permission to the current user (administrator), or take ownership of the folder/harddrive. Please do a quick google search, there should be heaps of articles about doing this.

Good luck

Michael

 

[MASolutions]

Thanks Michael for the suggesstion. After doing some extensive research, I cam across this link:

http://www.memphistech.net/articles/sid.html

and appears to have resolved the issue!

Thanks everyone for their suggestions/tips etc...

 

[58sniper]

Keep in mind that's certainly not going to be a supported scenario. That post is 7 years old, way before Server 2008 was released.

Pat Richard MVP
Plan for performance, and capacity takes care of itself. Plan for capacity, and suffer poor performance.

http://www.exchangeblogs.com/

 

[kmcferrin]

Pat's on the money here, you pretty much trashed your domain when you rebuilt the server. You should always have at least two DCs and at least a RAID-1 (mirror set) for the DCs hard disks. That way you can protect against disk and sever failures and not risk losing your entire directory.

The referenced article to appears to map the new domain accounts back to the old user profiles, but it is likely that there are going to be other issues turning up down the line.

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