Hi all I've got a client site here with two servers on a single domain. The win2k3 server handles just filesharing, with an Exch2k server handling mail and acting as Domain Controller. We've just had to reinstall 2003 Server following a major system failure. It's all come up OK, and we haven't lost data. However, when we try and connect it back onto the domain we receive the following error message: "The specified user already exists" We get this error message even if we try and rename the server to something completely different. I've also tried setting the server up as a secondary DC but get the same error. I'm a bit baffled. Please can anyone offer some suggestions as to how we get this one sorted? Thanks in advance. Neil Intel P4 1.6GHz 640MB PC133 RAM System HDD: Maxtor 20GB, HDD2: Maxtor 40GB HDD3: IBM 160GB GeForce 5700LE 256MB Win XP Home SP1

try this- on the client computer, right click on "my computer". Then click the "Computer Name" tab. Then click the "change" button. In the domain name field, only delete the ".local" of the domain name and hit enter. This usually does the trick for me. If that doesn't work let us know and we'll try something else- "i woke up this morning and all of my stuff was stolen and replaced with exact duplicates."