removing a PDC or BDC from a Domain

Hi

One thing you do need to do is denote the PDC to BDC and promote an BDC to PDC.
Then you might try to put the former PDC in the other domain as BDC and promote it to PDC again.

-harold-

I agree, you may even want to use a low end machine to setup as a PDC for the temporary mission and then reformatting that machine will be of no consequence once the old domain has outlived it's usefulness.

Provided the existing other domain does not have a PDC, the answer is yes. If you require the decommisioned PDC to be demoted to BDC or Member server for the other Domain, you need to reinstall NT server. There are no Registry hacks or any other wayto get round this.

Sorry to disappoint you, but there seems no way to move it to another domain without reinstall. Thats not about registry hack, you have completely other security base on this PDC.
What's more reinstalling NT and making it a BDC or member server of other domain will even save your time as you won't need to discover tons of errors and wrong config settings you'll undoubtedly have otherwise.

You do not mention if the server will be a DC on the new domain or just a regular server. To remove it you will need to promote your BDC to a PDC after you bring it (the PDC) down. Then in the new domain the best bet will be to reload NT. If it isn?t going to be a DC of any kind you can?t change that except for a new install (Microsoft states that once loaded there is no way to change the server?s role), and the old DC info on there could give you problems within the new domain. If it is going to be a DC it will actually be easier to do a new install than change and import all of the data and security files needed to be a part of the new domain. A simple server install (file, print, etc) is only about an hour or so and will be your best bet with the least headaches.

There is a (for pay) utility available to convert a DC to a member server and vice versa. (It is unsupported by Microsoft, and I forget the name).

If you use it, you could promote another machine to PDC, convert the machine to a mamber server, swap domains (and get a different SID in the process!) and convert it to a BDC again.

Domain controllers cannot move to different domains according to Microsoft guidelines, but this is one way (the only way I know) to achieve it.

you can use this utility:
http://u-tools.com/UTools/UPromote.asp
but it's unsupported by microsoft.
You can demote a pdc to a stand alone server without reinstalling it.With win2000 you can use the tool DCPROMO.EXE

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