Windows 2000 has a gotcha! that results in the system being unable to read the
GUID, globally unique identifier. The occurs when the system runs out of memory.
As a side effect, it thinks that there isn’t a GUID and writes a new one right
on top of the old one. When this happens, you system is dead. You lose access to
the Active Directory. If you don’t have a copy of the GUID to restore, its
reinstall time. A fix is supposed to be in the next W2K service pack but until
then, you can make a backup copy of the GUID:
- In regedt32 navigate to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Cryptography
- Save the key as a text file such as GUID.TXT
list is the actual GUID, so you may safely delete all of the other key blocks.
The bug is rare. Your system has to run out of memory before it can occur.
