Can't remove Active DIrectory!!

[Jon Telep]

Help!! My AD database and it's associated DNS records
have become corrupted beyond belief and now I can't get
DCPROMO to allow me to uninstall AD from the server even
while using the "forceremove" flag. I originally had two
DC's but one of them ate itself and I had to reinstall
that server. I used the same IP but gave it a different
name and made it a completely different server. The
record for that servers old name but same IP address still
exists in the corrupted database.

I think what's happening there is that if I tell it that
it's the last domain controller in the domain, it fails
because it has a record of another DC that really no
longer exists (but I can't seem to remove it from the AD
records, it complains with an error that says "The DSA
object could not be removed" or something like that.)

If I try to leave the box about it being the last domain
controller in the domain unchecked then I get a different
error that says "Failed finding a suitable domain
controller for the domain xxxx" "The specified domain
either does not exist or could not be contacted."

These are both initiated using the "forceremove" flag but
it doesn't seem to do me any good. Does anyone have any
ideas on how to get this thing off of my server so I can
actually get AD working correctly on it or is my only
option to completely wipe the entire server out and
reinstall everything all over again?

 

[Michael D. Ober]

Search for "DSA cannot be removed" on technet. There is a command line
utility - you definitely need the technet instructions to use it - that may
do the job for you.

Mike Ober.

 

[Richard McCall [MSFT]]

On the existing server go through the metadata cleanup per 21498 to remove
the server that was rebuilt. Then you should be able to go through a normal
demotion. If this is the last DC in the domain which it sounds like simply
state that it is the last dc when doing the dcpromo. Just to make sure you
are at SP4 and typed DCPROMO /FORCEREMOVAL