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How do I restore Active Directory?

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I am trying to restore my active directory for emergency response. I have tried now for about a week with no luck. The AD is from a network with two DCs. I have a backup up of the System State Data and the NTDS directory. I now have to restore to anetwork with a new server (which is not identical) and only one DC. I build the server, promote it to a DC then restart in Directory repair safe mode. Then I run the restore wizard from NTBackup. I have tried restoring using the advanced options andnot. I have tried authoritative and non-authoritative. Once the restore is complete and I reboot the server it starts to come back up and gets to the Windows Server Family splash screen and hangs. The Starting up bar gets to about 60-70%.
I have also tried this process without promoting the server to a DC and removing any drivers which are differnet like the video/NIC drivers. I have to rebuild from scratch to try again. What am I doing wrong?

Thanks
Jeff

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How do I restore Active Directory?

In reply to How do I restore Active Directory?

Hi,
The system state backup that you took from the original server contains a complete copy of the original server’s registry, including hardware keys. this means that when the restore is completed, the os boots up expecting to find the harware config from the old server, doesn’t find it, and hangs. I first ran into this when I tried to create a replica of a live domain for testing purposes, taking a backup from live server and and loading it onto a server running on a desktop. Researchingthe problem at the time, I came across a technet article that mentioned a ‘keysnottorestore’ registry key that could be tweaked on the target machine and with which you could specify keys that would be left out of the restore. i spent a while tryingthis out without much luck – BUT – while looking for the article in question to pass it on to you I see that it has been substantially modified \ updated, and may be well worth looking into again. the article number is
Q249694 look for it at microsoft.com/technet if you don’t have a local copy. Hope it works this time round…

How do I restore Active Directory?

In reply to How do I restore Active Directory?

Once reading the article I realized what I had missed. I how have a restored Active Directory.

Thanks

How do I restore Active Directory?

In reply to How do I restore Active Directory?

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