"Directory Object Not Found" During Dcpromo.exe After Windows NT PDC Upgrade

• Microsoft Windows 2000 Advanced Server
• Microsoft Windows 2000 Server

SYMPTOMS

After you upgrade a Microsoft Windows NT-based primary domain controller (PDC) to Windows 2000, the Active Directory Installation Wizard may not succeed and may generate the following error message:

The operation failed because:

The Directory Service (DS) is missing critical information after installation and cannot proceed. If this is a replica, please rejoin the machine to the domain.

Directory object not found.

CAUSE

After it creates all the domain objects and transfers the security principals to the Directory service, Windows 2000 searches Active Directory for:

• The Domain object



• The Administrator account Well-Known Security Identifier, or SID (the account name can be renamed)



• the Administrators group



• the Users group

RESOLUTION

There is currently no way to re-create the missing object(s). As a workaround, you can create a new Windows 2000 domain, and then move users and computer account to it from the existing Windows NT-based domain.

STATUS

Microsoft has confirmed this to be a problem in the Microsoft products listed at the beginning of this article.

MORE INFORMATION

You cannot delete built-in objects by using the tools included with Windows NT. Third-party products, however, may provide this capability. If the security of built-in objects is a concern, you can rename or disable them; you should not not delete them.

Additional query words:

Keywords : kberrmsg kbtool
Version : WINDOWS:2000
Platform : WINDOWS
Issue type : kbprb