Server that wont boot

[squeeky]

Hi everyone, Little urgent help needed. We have a server that boots, shows the windows 2008 r2 loading bar then just goes to a black screen. I can boot it correctly in safe mode but it wont let me login due to the login services not being available. Its a VM and I restored the OS vhd from yesterday and friday with the exact same result.

 

Anyone got any bright ideas ?

 

Thanks

Squeeky

[round2it]

Do you know the local admin password.

the one used before connecting to the domain. Then look at the event vwr

[squeeky]

yes i'm pretty sure I do and I have just got to get in to safe mode otherwise all is lost. I took the C drive VHDX offsite so I can mess with it and left the vm trying to do a chkdsk on boot and hope it will miraculous revive itself.... doubtfull

[Fazza]

Microsoft purchased Sysinternals a few years back that used to have a product called ERD Commander that you could boot from to get a server back up and running, the ERD Commander is no longer made though...

 

...but it has been replaced by Microsoft MSDaRT (Microsoft Diagnostics and Recovery Toolset) so download that and give it a try! Times before I've booted from that and the restarted the server without doing anything and it would then boot OK. If I remember correctly you can also enable the local admin account and reset it's password so you can log on in Safe Mode.

 

Another thing to try, is can you connect to it via Remote Desktop?

[Sagima]

Have you recreated it is as a new virtual machine and then attached the vhdx back? You could always attach it to another vm (or mount it to your computer) just to get the stuff of of it while you reinstall a new one.

[squeeky]

Hi Guys, Thanks for all the helpful suggestions. I have actually forcefully started all of the critical services in safe mode with networking. I am going to migrate it all to a fresh server install. All sorts of stuff was broken including the DHCP database which no matter where i got the database from was corrupted. I had all the scope info and reservations so I have recreated this from scratch.

 

At least I have something to work from now. Coincidentally does anyone know if SYSVOL automatically replicates to a secondary domain controller. I have looked in the sysvol folder on the new server after joining it to the failed server and cant see any files.

Edited February 14, 2017 by squeeky

[3s-gtech]

It does automatically replicate, so long as that replication was in place before things started breaking (DFS-R could well be one of them). In which case, you can do a manual copy across (or Robocopy preserving the : DATSOU switches).

[squeeky]

Yeh it looks like the share is not present either. Im missing netlogon and sysvol :S. If I get really stuck will robo work on both ?

[3s-gtech]

Yes. The NTFS and share permissions may be mental - check them afterwards.