I am trying to help someone over the phone. They say their windows server 2008 system is booting up in safe mode. And all the possible active directory restore mode passwords we try do not work. Does safe mode come up only when active directory is damaged? The person says they were deleting an account in exchange server. Which I guess is done thru active directory. What could have been deleted in active directory that would cause the system to come up in safe mode? Can safe mode be bypassed somehow? The person at the server says there is an option somewhere for F8 and F9. But all roads appear to lead to a windows login. The user name administrator is entered. Then the password that was working just yesterday. The message he gets at login is "no login servers available". thanks,

Hello, does the user have another DC with a GC that is okay? If yes, I recommend that: You resize FSMO roles that this DC is holder to another DC perform a metadata cleanup Delete all remaining DNS records for the old DC Re-install the faulty server Promote it again as a DC This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties or guarantees , and confers no rights. Microsoft Student Partner Microsoft Certified Professional Microsoft Certified Systems Administrator: Security Microsoft Certified Systems Engineer: Security Microsoft Certified Technology Specialist: Windows Server 2008 Active Directory, Configuration Microsoft Certified Technology Specialist: Windows Server 2008 Network Infrastructure, Configuration Microsoft Certified Technology Specialist: Windows Server 2008 Applications Infrastructure, Configuration

does the user have another DC with a GC that is okay? a GC as in "global catalog"? I did the config of this server and since I don't know what a GC is, I assume it does not have one. ;) It is a basic windows server 2008 install. It had DNS and active directory. Then I installed and configured exchange server. Shipped the server to this other party, they were able to login. Deleted something in active directory or exchange and now the system boots in safe mode. I wrote down what the restore mode password was when I installed the server. But never used it and now when we try to use that password it does not work. ( no login servers available? ) I have never seen safe mode. Can we boot the server in normal mode? thanks,

a GC is a global catalog. How many DCs do you have? How many DCs with DCs do you have? Do you have a DC with a GC on which you don't have problems? Do you have backups of the faulty DC? This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties or guarantees , and confers no rights. Microsoft Student Partner Microsoft Certified Professional Microsoft Certified Systems Administrator: Security Microsoft Certified Systems Engineer: Security Microsoft Certified Technology Specialist: Windows Server 2008 Active Directory, Configuration Microsoft Certified Technology Specialist: Windows Server 2008 Network Infrastructure, Configuration Microsoft Certified Technology Specialist: Windows Server 2008 Applications Infrastructure, Configuration

there is 1 DC. I did a full backup using the windows server 2008 backup facility before I shipped the server. But the backup is with me. The server is on the other side of the country. Can I restore anything from this backup, like the DC, copy to DVD and use that DVD to restore the system to a bootable state?

You can proceed like that if you want. You have to restore the DC as I don't see another way to proceed. This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties or guarantees , and confers no rights. Microsoft Student Partner Microsoft Certified Professional Microsoft Certified Systems Administrator: Security Microsoft Certified Systems Engineer: Security Microsoft Certified Technology Specialist: Windows Server 2008 Active Directory, Configuration Microsoft Certified Technology Specialist: Windows Server 2008 Network Infrastructure, Configuration Microsoft Certified Technology Specialist: Windows Server 2008 Applications Infrastructure, Configuration