In the process of migrating to new storage due to stability issues with the ageing OpenFiler platform, I ran into two of the DeStephen domain controllers having the error listed below. This seemed to be created after the storage appliance crashed hard.  Below is the steps taken to correct the systems.

First off, the error exhibited was the following:

“STOP: c00002e2 Directory Services could not start because of the following error: A device attached to the system is not functioning.

To correct the issue took about 15 minutes per server once the solution was found.  Thanks to Christoph Distefano for putting a clear list based off a TechNet post.

To summarize, the fix was to utilize the NTDSUTIL and ESENTUTL tools to validate and repair the appropriate databases within Active Directory Restore Services.

Christoph’s site below details the steps required:

http://distefano.biz/blog/index.php/2013/01/22/windows-server-2008domain-controller-failed-to-start/