How to Restore DNS Zones When Deleted from DNS Manager

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This article was previously published under Q180794

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SUMMARY

When you delete zones from DNS Manager, the Domain Name Service (DNS) in Windows NT Server does not actually delete the zone files.

When you create DNS zones using DNS Manager, the information is stored in .dns files located in your %SystemRoot%\System32\DNS folder. When DNS Manager deletes zones it does not remove these files; they still exist in the DNS folder. To recover the original zone information, re-create your zones using the exact names for the zones and the zone files. DNS Manager will load the .dns files and all of the previous information will appear.