w3svc wont start, metabase ccorrupted

I can't make the www publishing service start because , I believe, that the
metabase is corrupted.
This is one of two in the domain and isn't the web server.
How can I fix this?
I read that uninstalling and re installing IIS would fix it but...
Since this is a DC would I have to DCPROMO it down or is that necessary. Or
is there an easier way.
I copied the meatabase from the other machine to it but of course that
didn't work,
I tried to use metaedit to open and inspect the metabase but that just gives
a DRwatson error in the event log.
Any Idea what to attempt first?

I should mention that this is for iis5 on win2k server.
I'm getting tired...

"mmac" <no DeleteThis @thank.you> wrote in message
news:%236WJmKtmEHA.896@TK2MSFTNGP12.phx.gbl...
 > I can't make the www publishing service start because , I believe, that
the
 > metabase is corrupted.
 > This is one of two in the domain and isn't the web server.
 > How can I fix this?
 > I read that uninstalling and re installing IIS would fix it but...
 > Since this is a DC would I have to DCPROMO it down or is that necessary.
Or
 > is there an easier way.
 > I copied the meatabase from the other machine to it but of course that
 > didn't work,
 > I tried to use metaedit to open and inspect the metabase but that just
gives
 > a DRwatson error in the event log.
 > Any Idea what to attempt first?
 >
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