Backing up SAMs for reinstallation

[Murph]

Archived from groups: microsoft.public.windowsnt.domain (More info?)

Hi all,
I was wondering if someone could help me please.
We currently have a NT domain using a sole PDC
file/application server. This server ran quite happily
until last week when it decided it wasn't going to reboot
properly after installing a patch..the registry had become
corrupt (absolutely no idea why). No disaster recovery
disk, repair using boot disk didn't work. Separate NT
local NT installation crashed too.
After many phone calls and a bit of registry editing,
managed to get the PDC up and running but in a very
fragile state!. The OS is still struggling but chugging
along. However it has lost a lot of it's functionality and
things like the installer engine don't work because the
registry was so badly damaged.
I have resigned myself to wiping the machine and
reinstalling everything (remembering to backup of
course!). So have the disks, drivers, service packs at the
ready and then i realised i hadn't made a note of the
SAMs. I did a bit of reading up and found that another
Win2K server I have which is sitting on the same domain of
the PDC could be used as a BDC and in that way the SAMS
could be synchronised. When i looked up how to do this I
was told that I would have to install/activate active
directory. I know nothing about active directory and am a
little wary of installing it on the win2k server. Also
being a newer OS, I'm thinking that once I have the PDC
wiped and back up again that I might have problems joining
it back onto the network as the PDC....the win2k BDC might
have taken over?.
Sorry for the long-winded explaination.....is there a way
of exporting the SAMs from the damaged OS into a newly
installed PDC running NT?.

Would be very grateful for any advice.

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: microsoft.public.windowsnt.domain (More info?)

Don't use Win 2k unless you plan on upgrading to a Win 2k domain. Not sure
where you got your information from but Win 2k CAN NOT be a BDC.

If you want to keep your NT 4.0 domain, install NT 4.0 on a "box" while
connected to your existing network, and choose BDC during setup. During
setup the SAM will be replicated to the new BDC. Give it a temporary name
and IP address. Copy over files etc.. Promote to PDC ( which demotes your
existing PDC to BDC) Now you have the SAM on the "box" you can reformat the
original PDC and install NT 4.0 on it as a BDC, copy over files etc..
Promote to PDC.

hth
DDS W 2k MVP MCSE


"Murph" <Seanmurphy26@hotmail.com> wrote in message
news:17d0e01c449b7$05ffceb0$a301280a@phx.gbl...
> Hi all,
> I was wondering if someone could help me please.
> We currently have a NT domain using a sole PDC
> file/application server. This server ran quite happily
> until last week when it decided it wasn't going to reboot
> properly after installing a patch..the registry had become
> corrupt (absolutely no idea why). No disaster recovery
> disk, repair using boot disk didn't work. Separate NT
> local NT installation crashed too.
> After many phone calls and a bit of registry editing,
> managed to get the PDC up and running but in a very
> fragile state!. The OS is still struggling but chugging
> along. However it has lost a lot of it's functionality and
> things like the installer engine don't work because the
> registry was so badly damaged.
> I have resigned myself to wiping the machine and
> reinstalling everything (remembering to backup of
> course!). So have the disks, drivers, service packs at the
> ready and then i realised i hadn't made a note of the
> SAMs. I did a bit of reading up and found that another
> Win2K server I have which is sitting on the same domain of
> the PDC could be used as a BDC and in that way the SAMS
> could be synchronised. When i looked up how to do this I
> was told that I would have to install/activate active
> directory. I know nothing about active directory and am a
> little wary of installing it on the win2k server. Also
> being a newer OS, I'm thinking that once I have the PDC
> wiped and back up again that I might have problems joining
> it back onto the network as the PDC....the win2k BDC might
> have taken over?.
> Sorry for the long-winded explaination.....is there a way
> of exporting the SAMs from the damaged OS into a newly
> installed PDC running NT?.
>
> Would be very grateful for any advice.

 

[Murph]

Archived from groups: microsoft.public.windowsnt.domain (More info?)

Hey Danny,
Thanks for the reply. Tried doing that, setup NT on
another box, then tried to add it to the PDC domain by
creating an account for it through server manager on the
PDC. When I tried to join the new NT box to the PDC domain
it gave me a message saying that the account (with the new
box name) already existed on the domain. So i removed the
new NT box from the domain using the server manager. Went
back to the NT box, took it off the PDC domain and put it
on a workgroup. Rebooted the new NT box, logged on with
the adminstrator account to the workgroup. Manually added
it to the PDC domain through the TCP/IP properties and it
allowed me to add it to the PDC. But when I looked it up
on the server manager of the PDC it showed as just a
normal member of the domain and not a BDC. Very strange
and very very frustrating...lol. However in saying that, i
did look at the user manager on the new NT box and the
user accounts from the PDC had appeared to copy across,
does this mean that the PDC recognised the new box as an
BDC or can you administer user accounts from a NT member
of a domain?.
Sorry this is a little bit difficult to explain and i've
been working on it for sometime.

Thanks for your help
>-----Original Message-----
>Don't use Win 2k unless you plan on upgrading to a Win 2k
domain. Not sure
>where you got your information from but Win 2k CAN NOT be
a BDC.
>
>If you want to keep your NT 4.0 domain, install NT 4.0 on
a "box" while
>connected to your existing network, and choose BDC during
setup. During
>setup the SAM will be replicated to the new BDC. Give it
a temporary name
>and IP address. Copy over files etc.. Promote to PDC (
which demotes your
>existing PDC to BDC) Now you have the SAM on the "box"
you can reformat the
>original PDC and install NT 4.0 on it as a BDC, copy over
files etc..
>Promote to PDC.
>
>hth
>DDS W 2k MVP MCSE
>
>
>"Murph" <Seanmurphy26@hotmail.com> wrote in message
>news:17d0e01c449b7$05ffceb0$a301280a@phx.gbl...
>> Hi all,
>> I was wondering if someone could help me please.
>> We currently have a NT domain using a sole PDC
>> file/application server. This server ran quite happily
>> until last week when it decided it wasn't going to
reboot
>> properly after installing a patch..the registry had
become
>> corrupt (absolutely no idea why). No disaster recovery
>> disk, repair using boot disk didn't work. Separate NT
>> local NT installation crashed too.
>> After many phone calls and a bit of registry editing,
>> managed to get the PDC up and running but in a very
>> fragile state!. The OS is still struggling but chugging
>> along. However it has lost a lot of it's functionality
and
>> things like the installer engine don't work because the
>> registry was so badly damaged.
>> I have resigned myself to wiping the machine and
>> reinstalling everything (remembering to backup of
>> course!). So have the disks, drivers, service packs at
the
>> ready and then i realised i hadn't made a note of the
>> SAMs. I did a bit of reading up and found that another
>> Win2K server I have which is sitting on the same domain
of
>> the PDC could be used as a BDC and in that way the SAMS
>> could be synchronised. When i looked up how to do this I
>> was told that I would have to install/activate active
>> directory. I know nothing about active directory and am
a
>> little wary of installing it on the win2k server. Also
>> being a newer OS, I'm thinking that once I have the PDC
>> wiped and back up again that I might have problems
joining
>> it back onto the network as the PDC....the win2k BDC
might
>> have taken over?.
>> Sorry for the long-winded explaination.....is there a
way
>> of exporting the SAMs from the damaged OS into a newly
>> installed PDC running NT?.
>>
>> Would be very grateful for any advice.
>
>
>.
>

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: microsoft.public.windowsnt.domain (More info?)

If you choose BDC during setup you do not need to "add it to the domain".


But when I looked it up
> on the server manager of the PDC it showed as just a
> normal member of the domain and not a BDC. Very strange
> and very very frustrating...lol. However in saying that, i
> did look at the user manager on the new NT box and the
> user accounts from the PDC had appeared to copy across,
> does this mean that the PDC recognised the new box as an
> BDC or can you administer user accounts from a NT member
> of a domain?.


You MUST choose BDC during setup. You can not administer user accounts on a
member server.

hth
DDS W 2k MVP MCSE

"Murph" <seanmurphy26@hotmail.com> wrote in message
news:186ed01c44a6c$5a0e8180$a101280a@phx.gbl...
> Hey Danny,
> Thanks for the reply. Tried doing that, setup NT on
> another box, then tried to add it to the PDC domain by
> creating an account for it through server manager on the
> PDC. When I tried to join the new NT box to the PDC domain
> it gave me a message saying that the account (with the new
> box name) already existed on the domain. So i removed the
> new NT box from the domain using the server manager. Went
> back to the NT box, took it off the PDC domain and put it
> on a workgroup. Rebooted the new NT box, logged on with
> the adminstrator account to the workgroup. Manually added
> it to the PDC domain through the TCP/IP properties and it
> allowed me to add it to the PDC. But when I looked it up
> on the server manager of the PDC it showed as just a
> normal member of the domain and not a BDC. Very strange
> and very very frustrating...lol. However in saying that, i
> did look at the user manager on the new NT box and the
> user accounts from the PDC had appeared to copy across,
> does this mean that the PDC recognised the new box as an
> BDC or can you administer user accounts from a NT member
> of a domain?.
> Sorry this is a little bit difficult to explain and i've
> been working on it for sometime.
>
> Thanks for your help
> >-----Original Message-----
> >Don't use Win 2k unless you plan on upgrading to a Win 2k
> domain. Not sure
> >where you got your information from but Win 2k CAN NOT be
> a BDC.
> >
> >If you want to keep your NT 4.0 domain, install NT 4.0 on
> a "box" while
> >connected to your existing network, and choose BDC during
> setup. During
> >setup the SAM will be replicated to the new BDC. Give it
> a temporary name
> >and IP address. Copy over files etc.. Promote to PDC (
> which demotes your
> >existing PDC to BDC) Now you have the SAM on the "box"
> you can reformat the
> >original PDC and install NT 4.0 on it as a BDC, copy over
> files etc..
> >Promote to PDC.
> >
> >hth
> >DDS W 2k MVP MCSE
> >
> >
> >"Murph" <Seanmurphy26@hotmail.com> wrote in message
> >news:17d0e01c449b7$05ffceb0$a301280a@phx.gbl...
> >> Hi all,
> >> I was wondering if someone could help me please.
> >> We currently have a NT domain using a sole PDC
> >> file/application server. This server ran quite happily
> >> until last week when it decided it wasn't going to
> reboot
> >> properly after installing a patch..the registry had
> become
> >> corrupt (absolutely no idea why). No disaster recovery
> >> disk, repair using boot disk didn't work. Separate NT
> >> local NT installation crashed too.
> >> After many phone calls and a bit of registry editing,
> >> managed to get the PDC up and running but in a very
> >> fragile state!. The OS is still struggling but chugging
> >> along. However it has lost a lot of it's functionality
> and
> >> things like the installer engine don't work because the
> >> registry was so badly damaged.
> >> I have resigned myself to wiping the machine and
> >> reinstalling everything (remembering to backup of
> >> course!). So have the disks, drivers, service packs at
> the
> >> ready and then i realised i hadn't made a note of the
> >> SAMs. I did a bit of reading up and found that another
> >> Win2K server I have which is sitting on the same domain
> of
> >> the PDC could be used as a BDC and in that way the SAMS
> >> could be synchronised. When i looked up how to do this I
> >> was told that I would have to install/activate active
> >> directory. I know nothing about active directory and am
> a
> >> little wary of installing it on the win2k server. Also
> >> being a newer OS, I'm thinking that once I have the PDC
> >> wiped and back up again that I might have problems
> joining
> >> it back onto the network as the PDC....the win2k BDC
> might
> >> have taken over?.
> >> Sorry for the long-winded explaination.....is there a
> way
> >> of exporting the SAMs from the damaged OS into a newly
> >> installed PDC running NT?.
> >>
> >> Would be very grateful for any advice.
> >
> >
> >.
> >