My Windows 2003 server suddenly ceased to function as a DC (this server is the only DC of the domain). All AD related services are down. The only way I can login to the AD is physically to the machine. Everytime I access an AD-related service (e.g. "AD users and computers") I get the below error:

Naming information cannot be located because: The specified directory service attribute or value does not exist. Contact your system administrator to verify that your domain is properly configured and is currently online.

I found the below system event which matches the time when the issue started, this re-occurs everytime I reboot the server.

NTDS General | Global Catalog | Active Directory was unable to establish a 
                                        connection with the global catalog. 
Additional Data 
Error value:
1355 The specified domain either does not exist or could not be contacted. 
Internal ID:
3200d33 

I started the troubleshooting with DNS. Netdiag throws the below error although I think this is simply a consequence of not being able to access the Global Catalog.

The procedure entry point DnsGetPrimaryDomainName_UTF8 could not be located in the dynamic link library DNSAPI.dll.

Anyway DNS seems OK because I can ping the DC FQDN from the DC itself. I found the below solution which is supposed to help by doing some cleanup of the metadata:

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/216498

If I follow procedure 1 here is what I get at step 9:

no current site
Domain - DC=<mydomain>,DC=<com>
no current server
no current naming context

I can continue the procedure until step 14. I haven't tested step 15 as my understanding is that I will have to reinstall the whole AD again.

Is there any way I can recover my AD from there without having to reinstall the whole thing?

Update:

Yes, the server was powered off/on because reboot would take forever (not because I thought power cycling the unit would fix it more than a reboot).