The New Technology Directory Services Information Tree (NTDS.DIT), is the database for Active Directory Domain Services (AD DS), which stores directory data of all objects in the domain, including user, groups, computers, etc.
Where is the ntds.dit file found?
The ntds.dit file can be found in %systemroot\NTDS\ntds.dit. The value of %systemroot% can be found with the command (refer to docs):
The directory is commonly: C:\Windows\NTDS\ntds.dit.
Important note
By default, the ntds.dit file is stored only on the domain controller. We can utilize tools such as ntdsutil.exe to dump the ntds files (with administrator access to the DC).
