How to fix corrupt esent database in Windows XP

V

villandra

My computer abruptly shut down and wouldn't get past loading hte mouse
before going black - for days. It crashed less catstrophically last
week doing something similar. What happened seems to depend on where
one looks.

It is now booting - sometimes, using an error booting routine, and
says it doesn't get a boot file. But it still boots. Sometimes. It
seems to do better at booting up when the hard drive isn't in the boot
sequence (????) No, I'm not kidding. Unless it somehow put it self
back in the boot sequence when I physically put it back in the
computer, after trying to boot to CD with an unformatted secondhand
hard drive hooked up. The system restore disk is in the CD drive,
which is in the obot sequence, so maybe that has something to do with
it.

It seemed to crash because Webshots or Google Update tried
unsuccessfully to write to something. After that everything just hung
and the system would do very little.

One error message has to do with PMEM and MCSTRM, which I guess are
inconsequential. My system tries to start two services the drivers
for which do not exist, and as nearly as I can find, the prcesses
don't exist either. They are found in my device manager, it says the
drivers can't be found. Complete Vipre virus scan found nothing.

One message, that I get in the System recover CD, says error creating
output file, ptdcomp.dat, SysInfoComp. Yes, I'm spelling that exactly
right. Google can't even infd either of those terms.

Finally I get Esent databse corruption, something to do with catdb,
which may be aprtly attached to something, possilby in a hidden root
folder. An attempt to open file catdb for read/ writeaccess failed -
being used by another process.

How do I fix it?

My system, when it boots up, is very unstable - prone to sudenly turn
off - and extremely slow.

The articles on this online might as well be written in Greek, some
promise discussions that aren't there, and most pertain to Windows
2000 and to various server versions of Windows. I'm running Windows
XP Pro.

by the way, I ran Checkdisk and it found nothing wrong.
 
M

MowGreen

villandra said:
My computer abruptly shut down and wouldn't get past loading hte mouse
before going black - for days. It crashed less catstrophically last
week doing something similar. What happened seems to depend on where
one looks.

It is now booting - sometimes, using an error booting routine, and
says it doesn't get a boot file. But it still boots. Sometimes. It
seems to do better at booting up when the hard drive isn't in the boot
sequence (????) No, I'm not kidding. Unless it somehow put it self
back in the boot sequence when I physically put it back in the
computer, after trying to boot to CD with an unformatted secondhand
hard drive hooked up. The system restore disk is in the CD drive,
which is in the obot sequence, so maybe that has something to do with
it.

It seemed to crash because Webshots or Google Update tried
unsuccessfully to write to something. After that everything just hung
and the system would do very little.

One error message has to do with PMEM and MCSTRM, which I guess are
inconsequential. My system tries to start two services the drivers
for which do not exist, and as nearly as I can find, the prcesses
don't exist either. They are found in my device manager, it says the
drivers can't be found. Complete Vipre virus scan found nothing.

One message, that I get in the System recover CD, says error creating
output file, ptdcomp.dat, SysInfoComp. Yes, I'm spelling that exactly
right. Google can't even infd either of those terms.

Finally I get Esent databse corruption, something to do with catdb,
which may be aprtly attached to something, possilby in a hidden root
folder. An attempt to open file catdb for read/ writeaccess failed -
being used by another process.

How do I fix it?

My system, when it boots up, is very unstable - prone to sudenly turn
off - and extremely slow.

The articles on this online might as well be written in Greek, some
promise discussions that aren't there, and most pertain to Windows
2000 and to various server versions of Windows. I'm running Windows
XP Pro.

by the way, I ran Checkdisk and it found nothing wrong.



Do *NOT* rename the Catroot subfolder !!!!

Rename the Catroot2 subfolder !!!
From: http://www.support.microsoft.com/kb/822798


" Method 2: Rename the Catroot2 folder
Rename the Catroot2 folder (Windows XP and Windows Server 2003 only),
and then try to install the program again.


To rename the Catroot2 folder, follow these steps:
Click Start, click Run, type cmd, and then click OK.
At the command prompt, type the following commands, and then press ENTER
after each line:

net stop cryptsvc
ren %systemroot%\System32\Catroot2 oldcatroot2
net start cryptsvc
exit

Remove all tmp*.cat files from the following folder:
%systemroot%\system32\CatRoot\{F750E6C3-38EE-11D1-85E5-00C04FC295EE}


If no files that start with tmp exist in this folder, do *not* remove
any other files. The .cat files in this folder are necessary for
installing hotfixes and service packs.

*Important* Do not rename the Catroot folder. The Catroot2 folder is
automatically recreated by Windows, but the Catroot folder is not
recreated if the Catroot folder is renamed "



MowGreen
================
*-343-* FDNY
Never Forgotten
================

"Security updates should *never* have *non-security content* prechecked
 
V

villandra

Mow, it helps to tell me things in plain English.

Is %systemroot% by any chance, C:\? It couldn't even find a folder
called %systemroot%. OK? Now, tell me things in terms of what I
really find on my system.

In C:\Windows\system32\CatRoot2, I find two folders with long names
and brackets, and six files, none of which look anything like what you
are describing. There is temp.edb, edb.chk, edb.log, res1.log,
res2.log, and dberr.txt.

I understand that I have to be in the right folder to run esentutl.
Am I in the right folder? From what I've seen I might need to be in a
subfolder of one of the folders with the big long names in brackets -
if so, how in the world do I enter it?

I don't want to go deleting ANY folders, because I undersatnd that if
I do and whatever in God's name that it doesn't clearly tell me what
it is changed, my system will never work again.

Dora
 
T

Tester

villandra said:
Mow, it helps to tell me things in plain English.

Is %systemroot% by any chance, C:\? It couldn't even find a folder
called %systemroot%.

No %systemsroot% is not C:\ but it is in fact:

C:\WINDOWS

Now this assumes you have installed Windows XP on C: drive as it is the
default case. some people install windows on D:\ or even E:\ depending
on how many operating systems they have installed on that same machine.

The reason they don't write C;\windows or D:\windows etc is because it
confuses people (and it is cumbersome) while using % something % implies
a variable and system should be able to decipher it.

Is this simple enough for you? If not please post back.

hth
 
M

Mike S

No %systemsroot% is not C:\ but it is in fact:

C:\WINDOWS

Now this assumes you have installed Windows XP on C: drive as it is the
default case. some people install windows on D:\ or even E:\ depending
on how many operating systems they have installed on that same machine.

The reason they don't write C;\windows or D:\windows etc is because it
confuses people (and it is cumbersome) while using % something % implies
a variable and system should be able to decipher it.

Is this simple enough for you? If not please post back.

hth

An easy reminder is open a dos window Start > Run enter "cmd" + ENTER
type "cd %systemroot%" without the quotes and hit the ENTER key
 
J

Jason

or set
which gives a list of all the variables

Mike S said:
An easy reminder is open a dos window Start > Run enter "cmd" + ENTER
type "cd %systemroot%" without the quotes and hit the ENTER key
 
M

MowGreen

villandra said:
Mow, it helps to tell me things in plain English.

Is %systemroot% by any chance, C:\? It couldn't even find a folder
called %systemroot%. OK? Now, tell me things in terms of what I
really find on my system.

In C:\Windows\system32\CatRoot2, I find two folders with long names
and brackets, and six files, none of which look anything like what you
are describing. There is temp.edb, edb.chk, edb.log, res1.log,
res2.log, and dberr.txt.

I understand that I have to be in the right folder to run esentutl.
Am I in the right folder? From what I've seen I might need to be in a
subfolder of one of the folders with the big long names in brackets -
if so, how in the world do I enter it?

I don't want to go deleting ANY folders, because I undersatnd that if
I do and whatever in God's name that it doesn't clearly tell me what
it is changed, my system will never work again.

Dora
<snip>



If you can not understand the instructions in the KB article then just
run the Fixit instead.
That is precisely why I linked you to the KB article in the first place,
Dora -

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/822798



MowGreen
================
*-343-* FDNY
Never Forgotten
================

"Security updates should *never* have *non-security content* prechecked
 

Ask a Question

Want to reply to this thread or ask your own question?

You'll need to choose a username for the site, which only take a couple of moments. After that, you can post your question and our members will help you out.

Ask a Question

Top