Sometimes I need a “copy” of an Active Directory domain, partition or LDS instance. Usually this is when I remove decomissioned domains in a multi-domain forest and want to keep a record of what was left when I deleted it. You can do this With LDIFDE.EXE. Here is an example command to make a full export of a domain partition:

ldifde.exe -f <path and name of export file>.ldf -d “<DN of partition” -p subtree -x -l * -j <path to log folder>

I mean; you can never be too sure right?