Removing Computers in Active Directory

We experinced a Windows 2003 server failure (two of the 3 drives on the RAID-5 failed at once).  The decision was made to move the server contents to a virtual sever.  The new server has the same name of the older server. 

Before I could name the new server, the old server needed to be removed from Active Directory.  I went into Active Directory, found the server in the appropriate folder, right clicked it and selected Delete. After clicking Delete I recieved the following error:

The object or some of the objects it contains cannot be deleted because access is denied Scope Agreement: To fix help removing the object (Member server) from active directory.

After clicking OK I recieved an error message stating Access Denied.

To correct the problem from the command prompt I opened ADSIEDIT.msc  on the Domain Controller. In ADSI Edit I browsed to the correct container folder and expanded the server I was trying to delete. Once expanded, I was able to see a folder under the computer name.  I right clicked on the folder and deleted it.  Once deleted I was able to delete the server.

I verified the server was removed from DNS and was able to successfully name my new server the same name as the one it replaced.