Indexing - I got it stopped. Now, how do I restart it?

  • Thread starter Thread starter R. C. White, MVP
  • Start date Start date
R

R. C. White, MVP

For the first week or so after I installed Vista Ultimate x64, the Indexing
Service ran almost continuously. After a few days, Vista complained that it
was running out of room on my Drive C:. The index file was taking over 10
GB on that 20 GB volume, crowding out everything else. So, I created a new
20 GB volume (I've got plenty of hard disk space nowadays.) and dedicated it
to just the Index. Then I used Indexing Options' Advanced (or was it
Modify) button to change the indexing location to my new Drive T:. In a day
or two, Indexing Options proudly informed me that it had indexed just over
1,000,000 items and that Indexing was Complete. ;<)

But when I checked, I found that the index consumed 8 GB on T:, but also
still occupied 12 GB on C:! :>(

And that's when I got into trouble. I've tried everything I can think of to
switch the entire index to T:. Obviously, I did more than I should have,
because now I have no index at all. And I can't figure out how to get the
Indexing Service to start over and rebuild the index from scratch onto Drive
T:. I deleted all the index files from both C: and T:, and I deleted a few
most-likely-looking keys from the Registry.

Now, when I click Indexing Options, it opens with the message, "Indexing is
not running." The Modify and Advanced buttons are greyed out; only Close is
available. If I Start the Windows Search service, then click Indexing
Options, the message becomes "Waiting to receive indexing status...", and
this message does not change, even if I wait for hours. Again, only the
Close button is available.

How can I finish deleting the old index completely and start over to rebuild
the index?

RC
--
R. C. White, CPA
San Marcos, TX
(e-mail address removed)
Microsoft Windows MVP
(Running Windows Mail in Vista Ultimate x64)
 
RC,
Have you deleted HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows Search key or
any of its subkeys? If you did, you probably will have to reinstall. If you
didn't, do you have another Vista computer available? You'll need a few of
the files you've deleted.
Thanks,
Ilia
 
Hi, Ilia.

Yes, I'm afraid that I did delete some of the subkeys - or their values - in
HKLM\Microsoft\Windows Search.

And, yes, I do have another Vista installation. I have only this one
computer, but I've been dual-booting for years and I have Vista Ultimate x86
installed in a separate partition. Can I use that x86 Registry or files to
repair my x64 Registry? Will I need to reboot into x86, or can RegEdit
import what I need into x64? Also, I have plenty of unused disk space and,
thanks to MSDN, some unused Vista licenses, so I can clean install another
instance of Vista x64 if that would help solve my problem.

RC
--
R. C. White, CPA
San Marcos, TX
(e-mail address removed)
Microsoft Windows MVP
(Running Windows Mail in Vista Ultimate x64)
 
Using x86 registry on x64 should work, as long as the OSes have the
same version and installed on the same drive (like C:). I think. Since
it's broken already, you can just as well try :) So:

- On x86:
- Open indexing options control panel applet, go to advanced,
take note of current index location (C:\ProgramData\Microsoft by
default). Let's call it HOME.
- Go to HOME\Search. Recreate the same directory structure
on x64. You won't need ALL the files and folders though, only
the following:
HOME
Search
Config (and the file inside)
Data
Config (and the two files inside)
- Export the regkey, copy reg file to your x64

- On x64:
- Close all programs
- Open one CMD as admin, and another one as a regular user
(non-elevated)
- Kill explorer dead (use process explorer, or kill.exe from
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/171773)
- In the admin CMD:
- Run the following command: net stop wsearch
- Import the reg file
- Open regedit, go to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows
Search,
change SetupCompletedSuccessfully to 0
- Run the following command: net start wsearch
- In regular CMD, start explorer

That should get you back to where you started. Then, BEFORE adding
your local copy of the internet to the index, move the index to a new
location where there's a plenty of space. Given your indexing appetites,
I'd define plenty as 30-50Gb. It doesn't really need that much to store
the data, but temp files do add up.

To improve performance further,
- Do not keep the index, swap file and the data you are indexing
on the same physical HDD (or on the same PATA ribbon even).
Keeping 2 out of 3 together is OK.
- Install 2Gb of RAM or more, helps file caching a lot. The more
the merrier.
- Use readyboost, helps file caching some more.

Thanks,
Ilia
 
Hi, Ilia.

Thanks!

Looks like it might take a while, so I'll get started and report back,
probably tomorrow.

I do have 2 GB RAM plus a 2 GB ReadyBoost, and I'm putting the index onto a
separate SATA HD.

RC
--
R. C. White, CPA
San Marcos, TX
(e-mail address removed)
Microsoft Windows MVP
(Running Windows Mail in Vista Ultimate x64)
 
Hi, Ilia.

Success! Well, to a point...

Everything worked until I got back to the starting point. In other words,
Indexing IS working again in Vista x64. ;<) Well, almost everything
worked. The Import into the x64 Registry said it failed, but when I looked,
it seemed to be all there. And, as I said, the Indexing is working.

But I still can't move the Index to my Drive T:. Is it because the Index is
currently being built? Right now, it says "2,792 items indexed; Indexing
speed is reduced due to user activity." And the number continues to
increment (over 3,000 now). Oh, cancel that. Now it says, "3,038 items
indexed; Indexing complete." Of course, only the default locations are
being indexed, for now.

Dir T:\ProgramData\Microsoft\Search /s/a shows a total of zero bytes.
Dir C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\Search /s/a shows a total of 128,630 bytes.
These are in the 3 files msscolmn.txt, gathrprm.txt and schema.txt, which
are apparently the default files, all dated 11/02/2006. (The same Dir
command for K:\...\Search, which holds Vista x86, shows over 22 MB. It
shows those same 3 *.txt files, but the gathrprm.txt file is dated
1/13/2007, which probably was the date I installed Vista x86.)

In other words, the instructions for moving the Index location don't work!
That was what caused me to get into this mess in the first place. I've
followed the instructions to move the location to T:, but the Index stayed
on C:. On the Advanced | Index Settings tab, in the "Current location" box,
it still says C:\ProgramData\Microsoft, just as it always has. The other
box says "New location, after service is restarted:" I've entered
"T:\ProgramData\Microsoft" here, then clicked OK - but nothing happens. So
I've clicked "Select New" and navigated to that directory on T:, then
clicked OK - and still nothing happens. I've gone to the Admin CMD window
and typed: net stop wsearch; it says the service was stopped successfully.
Then I typed: net start wsearch; it says the search service was started
successfully. But Indexing Options still shows the Current location on C:.
And Dir still shows zero bytes used on T:.

Aha! I rebooted into x64. Indexing options still reports 3,038 items
indexed and Indexing complete, and it still shows C: as the Current location
and T: as the new location.

BUT, RegEdit now shows some new lines under HKCM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows
Search:

FailedMoveFileErrorCode 0x000000b7 (183)
FailedMoveNewDataLocation T:\ProgramData\Microsoft\Search\Data
FailedMoveOldDataLocation C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\Search\Data
FailedMoveRegErrorCode 0x00000000 (0)

So I guess we need to translate the error code B7 (183). Vista Live Search
finds no results for FailedMoveFileErrorCode. The Registry knows that I
want to move the Index, and that the move failed, but it never informed me
of that, much less any clue as to WHY it failed.

RC
--
R. C. White, CPA
San Marcos, TX
(e-mail address removed)
Microsoft Windows MVP
(Running Windows Mail in Vista Ultimate x64)
 
Great that you mentioned that error code in the registry, 0x000000b7. It
means that the destination directory already exists, and indexer is afraid
to overwrite it. It was left there by the previous move attempt. Since we
know there's nothing in it, you can go ahead and delete
T:\ProgramData\Microsoft\Search, and restart the indexer. The move should
succeed then.
Ilia
 
Hi, Ilia.

Wow! It's so simple - when you know how to read the codes. ;<)

When I first tried to delete the file from T:, Explorer balked, saying that
the file was in use by another program. So I used the Admin:Command Prompt
to net stop wsearch. Then Explorer deleted the file without complaint. And
then I tried net start wsearch and was told that it was already running.
Indexing Options now confirms that the Current location is
T:|ProgramData\Microsoft. And the "New location..." box is empty. We have
3,042 items indexed and "Indexing complete."

All's well that ends well. But, could you please pass the word to the team
responsible for documenting the process for moving the Index location? This
simple failure to mention that the destination folder must not already exist
(and my incorrect reaction to it) has caused me many hours of frustration -
and left me with NO index for a couple of months.

Thanks for your help, Ilia!

RC
--
R. C. White, CPA
San Marcos, TX
(e-mail address removed)
Microsoft Windows MVP
(Running Windows Mail in Vista Ultimate x64)
 
Bring it on!

To get the current index location without access to advanced options, see
"HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows Search" subkey, value
"DataDirectory". By default it's "%ProgramData%\Microsoft\Search\Data\". If
you move it to e:\index\search, the value will be
c:\index\search\Search\Data. Let's refer to that location as HOME. If you
want to indexer to come back HOME and keep your settings as they were
otherwise, you'll need 3 files there:

HOME\Config\msscolmn.txt
HOME\Data\Config\gathrprm.txt
HOME\Data\Config\schema.txt

Then are the same on any kind of Vista, and the same as in WDS 3.01 for XP.
Then, set "SetupCompletedSuccessfully" sibling of "DataDirectory" to 0, and
start the indexer.

Thanks,
Ilia
 
agooch,
I don't think posting any part of the OS on a newsgroup would be cosher.
However, a Vista user can find all these files here:

C:\Windows\winsxs\x86_windowssearchengine_31bf3856ad364e35_6.0.6000.16386_none_47e1b1bb326f0fb4

Thanks,
Ilia
 
Ilia-
I cannot get the service to start. Using Vista Ult. Do I have to reinstall in place in order to get the wsearch service to work again? Thanks a ton! Outlook 2007 is hosed unless I open in safe mode.


C:\Users\Jeff>net start wsearch
The Windows Search service is starting.
The Windows Search service could not be started.

A system error has occurred.
System error 126 has occurred.
The specified module could not be found.



EggHeadCafe - .NET Developer Portal of Choice
http://www.eggheadcafe.com
 
Hi Jeff,

The System File Checker tool scans system files and replaces incorrect versions of the system files by using the correct versions. To run the System File Checker tool, follow these steps:

1. Click Start, and then type cmd in the Start Search box.

2. Right-click cmd in the Programs list, and then click Run as administrator.

If you are prompted for an administrator password or confirmation, type your password or click Continue

3. At the command prompt, the following line, and then press ENTER:

sfc /scannow

--
Regards,

Ramesh Srinivasan, Microsoft MVP [Windows Shell/User]
Windows® Troubleshooting http://www.winhelponline.com


<Jeff Huckaby> wrote in message Ilia-
I cannot get the service to start. Using Vista Ult. Do I have to reinstall in place in order to get the wsearch service to work again? Thanks a ton! Outlook 2007 is hosed unless I open in safe mode.


C:\Users\Jeff>net start wsearch
The Windows Search service is starting.
The Windows Search service could not be started.

A system error has occurred.
System error 126 has occurred.
The specified module could not be found.



EggHeadCafe - .NET Developer Portal of Choice
http://www.eggheadcafe.com
 
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