HOW TO: Force Deletion of DFS Configuration Information

Windows 2000 servers and domain controllers store DFS configuration information in the registry and the Active Directory. In some cases, it may be useful to return to a steady state. This article describes how to delete DFS configuration data in the registry and Active Directory. Important This section, method, or task contains steps that tell you how to modify the registry. However, serious problems might occur if you modify the registry incorrectly. Therefore, make sure that you follow these steps carefully. For added protection, back up the registry before you modify it. Then, you can restore the registry if a problem occurs. For more information about how to back up and restore the registry, click the following article number to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:

Fault-Tolerant DFS Roots

1. Stop the DFS service by tying net stop dfs at a command prompt.
2. Start Registry Editor and delete the following registry keys:
   1. Delete the Volumes folder and any subfolders under HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\DfsHost.
   2. Delete all subfolders under HKLM\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\DfsDriver\LocalVolumes, leaving LocalVolumes intact.
3. From the Active Directory Users and Computers snap-in, click Advanced Features on the View menu. Open the DFS-Configuration container under the System folder. Delete the DFS root in the right pane.
   
   Note that the DFS configuration data can also be removed from the Active Directory using LDAP or Adsiedit.msc. For a computer in the A.COM domain with a fault-tolerant DFS root named DFSFT, the LDAP path would be CN=DFS-Configuration,CN=System,DC=A,DC=COM.
4. Restart the DFS service you stopped in step 1.

Stand-Alone DFS Roots and Windows 2000 Cluster Servers

1. Stop the DFS service by tying net stop dfs at a command prompt.
2. Start Registry Editor and delete the following registry keys:
   1. Delete the Volumes folder and any subfolders under HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\DfsHost.
   2. Delete all subfolders under HKLM\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\DfsDriver\LocalVolumes, leaving LocalVolumes intact.
3. Restart the DFS service you stopped in step 1.