As soon as you realize that a DC is down, you need to determine whether it owned any domain FSMO roles. To do so, open the Microsoft Management Console (MMC) Active Directory Users and Computers snap-in. Right-click the domain object, then select Operations Masters from the context menu. The resulting dialog box includes the Infrastructure, PDC, and RID tabs, which display each role. Alternatively, you can use the Microsoft Windows 2000 Server Resource Kit's dumpfsmos.cmd batch file or the Netdom utility (a Win2K Support Tool) to see which server holds which role. Be aware that you should seize the Schema Master only when you plan to replace, rather than rebuild, the server. I suggest you read the Microsoft article "Flexible Single Master Operation Transfer and Seizure Process" (Q223787, http://support.microsoft.com) before seizing any FSMO roles.
When restoring the System State of an AD DC or GC server, you must first use Ntdsutil to run a metadata cleanup and remove the ntdsDSA object, or the recovered server won't be able to rejoin AD. The Microsoft article "HOW TO: Remove Data in Active Directory After an Unsuccessful Domain Controller Demotion" (Q216498, http://support.microsoft.com) explains this process. . . .
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