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Warning: Database log files are corrupt

U-Move cannot load Active Directory because one or more log files (edb*.log files) are corrupt in the system folder C:\Windows\NTDS.

If you see this warning message, click Ok to continue. U-Move will roll back the partial loading of AD and exit.

Run U-Move again and override the warning message (see below).

Overriding the Warning Message

If you override the warning message, U-Move will to continue to restore Active Directory. It will then reboot your computer.

In many cases, AD will automatically repair the log file(s) and boot normally.

If the log files cannot be repaired, you will see a Blue Screen with an error message stating that the Directory Service cannot start. The computer will then halt.

How to Fix This Error

If the computer fails to boot after you override the error message (Blue Screen), you will need to reboot in DSRM and delete the log files.

1. Open an administrative console.
2. Check and report on NTDS database integrity:
       esentutl /g C:\Windows\NTDS\NTDS.dit /8 /o
   If the NTDS database file (NTDS.DIT) itself is damaged, then recovery might not be successful.
3. List the EDB files and report if any are missing or corrupt:
       esentutl /ml C:\Windows\NTDS\edb
4. If the above command reports that one or more EDB files are missing or corrupt, you can effectively reset the EDB log files by moving them to another folder, then do a hard recovery of NTDS:
       cd C:\Windows\NTDS
    mkdir BAD_EDB_FILES
    move edb* BAD_EDB_FILES
    esentutl /p C:\Windows\NTDS\NTDS.dit /8 /o
   This will cause NTDS to create a new empty log file.

Under normal operation, AD does not change very often. All changes are quickly posted to the database, typically within a second, so the log files are rarely needed.

For additional recovery steps, see the Dell Knowledge Base Article Active Directory database repair after Domain Controller failure.