Q: I recently discovered that some of our Active Directory (AD) Domain Controllers (DCs) have their AD databases (ntds.dit) installed on the system drive (C). How do I move the database to the D drive?

A: There’s no need to reinstall the affected DCs or to rerun the DCpromo AD installation process. The easiest way to move the AD database to another drive is to use AD’s Directory Service Restore Mode (DSRM). DSRM is an AD disaster recovery option that lets you perform critical tasks such as recovering the AD database, taking an offline copy of the AD database files, or defragmenting the AD database. To get into DSRM, reboot your DC and press F8 during the startup sequence. In the text menu that appears, choose the Directory Services Restore option. You will then be prompted to enter the DSRM password.

From DSRM, open a command prompt and run the following command to move the AD database to the D drive:

C:\>NTDSUTIL 
files
move db to d:\NTDS
q
q

Then reboot the DC to its regular operation mode.