Help and Support
 

powered byLive Search

Directory Service Does Not Start If Disk Is Full

View products that this article applies to.
Article ID:259278
Last Review:February 28, 2007
Revision:2.2
This article was previously published under Q259278
On This Page

SYMPTOMS

The following error message may occur when you start a Windows 2000-based Active Directory domain controller:
Lsass.exe - System Error

Directory Services could not start because of the following error: There is not enough space on the disk. Error Status: 0xc000007f. Please click OK to shutdown this system and reboot into Directory Service Restore Mode, check the event logs for more detailed information.
When this occurs, the following events are recorded in the Event log for the directory service:
Event ID: 1393
Attempts to update the Directory Service database are failing with error 112. Since Windows will be unable to log on users while this condition persists, the Netlogon service is being paused. Check to make sure that adequate free disk space is available on the drives where the directory database and log files reside.

Event ID: 428
NTDS (272) The database engine is rejecting update operations due to low free disk space on the log disk.
The following warning message is recorded in the System log:
Event ID 2013:
The D: disk is nearing Capacity. You may need to delete some files.

Back to the top

CAUSE

Active Directory cannot start if it runs out of disk space. Windows 2000 attempts to avoid this situation, but it can occur if you ignore warnings about low disk space in the System log or if you run large scripts against Active Directory for mass directory imports.

This behavior has been known to be caused by an issue with the NTBackup program not deleting old .edb log files. Please refer to this article for more information:
272425 (http://support.microsoft.com/kb/272425/EN-US/) Ntbackup.exe Does Not Truncate Active Directory Logs

Back to the top

RESOLUTION

To resolve this issue, use any of the following methods.

Back to the top

Method 1: Clear Space on the Drive

Use this method if you have one drive available and you cannot install additional drives in the server.
1.Click OK to acknowledge the error message so that the computer will reboot.
2.At the Boot menu, press F8.
3.Boot the domain controller into Directory Services Restore mode (Windows 2000 domain controllers only), and log on with the Directory Services Restore mode administrator account and password. (This is the password you assigned during the Dcpromo process).
4.Locate the drive containing the directory and log files. The directory (Ntds.dit) and log files are located in the \Winnt\Ntds folder on the root drive by default. However, the administrator may have changed their locations during the Dcpromo process.
5.Free some space on the drive. If there is no space to free, use method 2.
6.If you can free space on the drive, reboot the computer normally.

Back to the top

Method 2: Move the Database or Log Files

Ntdsutil.exe has an option for moving either the database file or the database log file. This method is ideal when you cannot move data to another drive to free more space. If all drives are at capacity, it may be necessary to install an additional hard disk in the computer.
1.Boot the domain controller in Directory Services Restore mode and log on with the Directory Services Restore mode administrator account and password (this is the password you assigned during the Dcpromo process).
2.At a command prompt, type ntdsutil.exe. You receive the following prompt:
ntdsutil:
3.Type files to receive the following prompt:
file maintenance:
4.Type info. Note the path of the database and log files.
5.To move the database, type move db to %s (where %s is the target folder).
6.To move the log files, type move logs to %s (where %s is the target folder).
7.Type quit twice to return to the command prompt.
8.Reboot the computer normally.

Back to the top

STATUS

This behavior is by design.

Back to the top

APPLIES TO
•Microsoft Windows 2000 Server
•Microsoft Windows 2000 Advanced Server
•Microsoft Windows 2000 Datacenter Server

Back to the top

Keywords: 
kbenv kberrmsg kbprb KB259278

Back to the top

Article Translations

 

Related Support Centers

Other Support Options

  • Need More Help?
    Contact a Support professional by Email, Online or Phone.
  • Customer Service
    For non-technical assistance with product purchases, subscriptions, online services, events, training courses, corporate sales, piracy issues, and more.
  • Newsgroups
    Pose a question to other users. Discussion groups and Forums about specific Microsoft products, technologies, and services.