I had a member server 2003 that I installed Active directory on to make a DC. It started causing problems so I removed AD using the force removal command from the domain. Now I want to join the server back to the domain using the same server name. but it wont join to domain as the message comes everytime I try to join " the computer name already exists" . I cant change the name as it has some applications running on the server. Please help how to make the server of the domain without loosing data or changing the name, Help would be greatly appreciated.

After using dcpromo /forceremoval, you need to clean All objects related to your orphaned DC, see here : http://support.microsoft.com/kb/555846/en-us http://support.microsoft.com/kb/216498/en-usBechir Gharbi. MCSA, MCSE M+S, MCITP Server/Enterprise Administrator, MCT, MCTS Configuration Manager/Forefront (Time Zone : GMT+1)

Did you perform the metadata cleanup? Try that first. Here is the procedure: http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc736378(WS.10).aspx Santhosh Sivarajan | MCTS, MCSE (W2K3/W2K/NT4), MCSA (W2K3/W2K/MSG), CCNA, Network+ Houston, TX http://blogs.sivarajan.com/ http://publications.sivarajan.com/ This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no rights.

Hi Hussain, Did you had a chance to go through the suggestions above , please do let us know if you need further assistance , if not please post the resolution steps which would be helpful for other engineers.