Recent attempts to recover one of our NT Servers have not gone as well as I
would have liked.  Below is a brief description of the hardware and software
used as well as the steps involved.

Please don't hesitate in responding in letting me know what hoops I need to
jump through to recover an NT server acting as a domain controller.





Hardware and Software used

 HP Netserver 5/133 LH
  o 160 MB of memory
  o 12 GB of disk
  o 3.51 windows NT Server with service pack 4
  o This machine, know as NT_LAB3, acts as a backup domain controller
  o ADSM version 2, release 1, level 0.3
  o The regular system boot partition is C:

Step 1.
  o Built an alternate boot partition D:.
  o Booted from this new partition.  The server joined the Domain just
    fine. No problems. Installed service pack 4, the Windows NT resource kit,
    and ADSM.  Modified the options file to include all of the files located in
    \WINNT35\SYSTEM32\CONFIG directory.  For some reason the default is for
    ADSM NOT to attempt to backup these files.  These are critical system files
    and ADSM needs to back them up.
  o Backed up this new partition to our IBM mainframe using the GUI interface.
    Several messages appeared in the dialog box regarding files in the
    \WINNT35\SYSTEM32\CONFIG directory that could not be backed up. These
    messages are most concerning, since my backup administator informed me that
    the "fuzzy" backup option was being used during the backup of this new
    partition.  As I understand it, the "fuzzy" option will backup open files.
    No failures were listed by ADSM regarding the backup of alternate boot
    partition D:.

Step 2.
  o Upon completion of the alternate boot partition D: backup. The server was
    rebooted under partition C: the regular boot partition.
  o The server joined the Domain just fine. No problems.
  o Formatted the alternate boot partition D:. Confirmed that no files
    were left on partition D:.
  o Restored alternate boot partition D: using the ADSM GUI interface.  The
    option that I used was "Restore by Subdirectory Branch". There were several
    messages about access denied for files in the \WINNT35\SYSTEM32\CONFIG
    directory.
  o Upon completion of the restoration of the alternate boot partition D:
    I rebooted the server to this newly restored partition.
  o The server would NOT BOOT into the alternate boot partition D:. I got
    the following message: WINDOWS NT NOT START BECAUSE THE FOLLOWING FILE IS
    MISSING OR CORRUPT \WINNT35\SYSTEM32\CONFIG\SYSTEM.
  o Restored partition is useless.

Step 3.
  o The server was rebooted under partition C: the regular boot partition.
  o The server joined the Domain just fine. No problems.
  o Re-formatted the alternate boot partition D:. Confirmed that no files
    were left on partition D:.
  o Restored alternate boot partition D: using the ADSM command line.  The
    option that I used was "restore -rep=all subdir=yes". There were several
    messages about access denied for files in the \WINNT35\SYSTEM32\CONFIG
    directory.
  o Upon completion of the restoration of the alternate boot partition D:
    I rebooted the server to this newly restored partition.
  o The server would NOT BOOT into the alternate boot partition D:. I got
    the following message: WINDOWS NT NOT START BECAUSE THE FOLLOWING FILE IS
    MISSING OR CORRUPT \WINNT35\SYSTEM32\CONFIG\SYSTEM.
  o Restored partition is useless.
  o Same problem.

Step 4.
  o Repaired the alternate boot partition D: using Windows NT approved methods.
  o Upon completion of the repair process, I booted the server using the
    recently repaired alternate boot partition D:.
  o This time the server booted using the alternate boot partition D:.
    However, the server fails to correctly join the domain.
  o Restored/repaired partition is useless.



Regards...
Efrain Hinojosa