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Active Directory: NTDS folder and its Contents

The Active Directory Database is Stored in %SYSTEM ROOT%\NDTS folder. The file is called asntds.dit. Along with this file there are other files also present in this folder. The files are created when you run dcpromo. The list of files and use of those files are listed below
1. ntds.dit : This is the main database file for active directory.
2. edb.log : When a transaction performed to ad database, like writing some data first the data will be stored to this file. And after that it will be sent to database. So the system performance will be depends on how this data from edb.log file will be written to ntds.dit. multiple .log files will be created according to the requirement.
3. res1.log : Used as reserve space in the case when drive had low space. It is basically 10MB in size and created when we run dcpromo.
4. res2.log : Same as res1.log. It is also 10MB in size and the purspose also same.
5. edb.chk : This file records the transactions committed to ad database. During shutdown, shutdown statement is written to this file. If it is not found when the system rebooted, the ad database tries to check with edb.log for the updated information.
6. Drop folder : It contains details related to SMTP.
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