Restore Active Directory -"Directory Services cannot start"

STOP: c00002e1 Directory Services could not start

Use Esentutl when Ntdsutil tool fails to repair the Active Directory database

The Ntdsutil tool may fail to repair the Active Directory database (the Ntds.dit file) and generates one or more of the following errors:

Operation failed because the database was inconsistent.

Initialize jet database failed; cannot access file.

Error while performing soft recovery. 

All is not lost. You can use the Esentutl.exe tool to resolve the problem.

Solution

To perform an integrity check

Start a command prompt

Type the following command (including the quotation marks), and then press ENTER: 

esentutl /g "path\ntds.dit"/!10240 /8 /v /x /o

where path is the path to the folder that contains the Ntds.dit db file. By default, this folder is %systemRoot%\NTDS folder.

To repair the database:

Type the following command (including the quotation marks), and then press ENTER: 

esentutl /p "path\ntds.dit" /!10240 /8 /v /x /o

Important: 

• Delete the database log files from the Ntds folder. 
• Do not delete or move the Ntds.dit file.