Need Help Fixing Corrupted? History

  • Thread starter Thread starter Chad Harris
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Chad Harris

Trying to Fix Broken History
_______________________

Running Win XP SP2 (I don't believe this has connection to SP2). I rely on
history to go back to links. I can't create favorites and shortcuts for
everything--too time consuming. Recently, vintage 3 weeks I cannot access
some of History, and the lack of access is *progressing.* The first week
when I listed *By Date* I could not access today or the days of the week,
but could access "last week. The second week I could not access any of this
week or last week. Now I can only access 3 weeks ago. When I click
anything more recent, nothing happens. I have *days to keep history* set
to 440 and I might want even more. It has occured to me that I may have
*promoted/caused corruption by keeping it so far back*, but I don't want to
clear what I have if I can fix this. If I hit View>By Site nothing shows
up. View>By most visited isn't accurate, but I don't know that it ever is.
View>By Order Visited today is blank also. *I might be losing the ability
to save any history links.*

I wondered if this is in any way analagous to the regedits that can be done
to increase the default amount of Folder settings *remembered* which
defaults to 400, explained well and addressed on Kelly's site among others.
I would be grateful if anyone has any ways to fix History. I wondered if
there is something I can reregister, a script that will help or regedits.
I'm a big believer in system restore's potential, but since this is a month
old but I have the slider at 7% and I have 9 days of restore points. I
probably should conserve real-estate by moving it down more, and think the
90 day default description MS often uses in KBs and Technet/MSDN
descriptions is simply not accurate in the real world, because of the 5 or
more criteria for default setting of points anyway.

Would be grateful for any help,

Chad Harris
 
I thought that if I delete index.dat it will reconstitute quickly or
perhaps on reboot, but will this also delete my history I have left, since
it is either saturated or obviously not tracking any more?

Chad

__________________________________________________________________
 
Kelly--

I understand that and agree. But this issue predates SP2 so it's an XP SP1
issue *not related to the Beta.* I wouldn't even mention SP2 but always
believe you are remiss when asking for help if you don't give the version or
the browser, ect. You either have the choice of IDing your OS as just XP to
get help for issues that aren't Beta issues. I was hoping you would see
this and might have some insight as to if 1) I corrupted history by too many
links. 2) I could fix it--I really rely on it. 3) Would I help myself or
hurt myself if I deleted index.dat? I thought if I just wiped it clean
(deleted history, I'd have it back on a fresh slate but I wanted to save the
links I had). I guess the most expedient way would be to burn them or save
them to a floppy.

Have a great Mardi Gras. I always have a good time down there.

Thanx,

Chad

_______________________________________________________
 
I understand that and agree. But this issue predates SP2 so it's an XP SP1
issue *not related to the Beta.*
Click to expand...

Glad to hear it, Chad and will look into this tomorrow. Is 4 am here and I
should be sleeping, rather than thinking. :o)
Have a great Mardi Gras. I always have a good time down there.
Click to expand...

Thanks! Fat Tuesday.....
 
Hi Chad,

I have never seen this issue via SP1 or 2, so I can't relate or better
troubleshoot. It may be possible that your History folder is simply
corrupt.

Suggestions and Information:

Back with version 5.5 there were issues with the Index.dat file expanding up
to several megabytes in size. In that case, it had to do with shdocvw.dll.

More information:

If a user name contains the number sign (#), regardless of where the number
sign appears in the user name, the Internet Explorer history file associated
with that user may become corrupted. This problem occurs whether the user
logs on locally or logs on to a Microsoft Windows NT-based domain. In
addition, the Index.dat file may expand up to several megabytes in size.

How to remove index.dat:

Clean out Usage Tracks in Windows
http://www.12ghosts.com/ghosts/wash.htm

Checkpoints:

Start/Run/Regedit:

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\
Internet Settings\Url History

Check Permissions and Days to Keep.

McAfee:

Fix for History/Favorites are removed or not saved:

I have seen this behavior caused by McAfee and from the date and time being
incorrect. Checkpoints and Suggestions:

Check to be sure that your date and time is correct. Also, if you are using
McAfee, this will help:

McAfee gave this solution to the bug where VirusScan 6 stops your
Internet Explorer History file working.

Open VirusScan console
Select "Pick a task..."
Select "Change my VirusScan settings"
Select "Configure VShield background scanning"
Select "Customise your VShield settings"

Select the "Internet Filter" icon from the icons down the left hand side On
the "Detection" tab, in the 'Applet filters' section, remove the tick next
to "ActiveX Controls".

If this is not the case, run this edit:

Prevent IE History from Being Removed - Undo (Line 101)
http://www.kellys-korner-xp.com/xp_tweaks.htm

To use the Regedit: Save the REG File to your hard disk. Double click it
and answer yes to the import prompt. REG files can be viewed in Notepad by
right clicking on the file and selecting Edit.

Note: If you are using the Personalized Favorites Menu, Internet Explorer
automatically hides site that are rarely visited from the Favorites menu.
 
Kelly--

I was off the web with an ISP issue for a day. so apologize on the getting
back time.

Thanks for the comprehensive info. This is an answer full of pearls I would
have never found. That's why I have Kelly A-Z and Tweaks open right now
trying to solve someone else's problem--it's my first go to and favorite
site to pass on.

I don't have McAffee; I have Norton Sys Works and NIS for the software
firewall and a Linksys to give me basic hardware/ software firewalls and
very unsophisticated, basic protection. Reg key/values are a nice tip I
wouldn't have found and appreciate the perspective with the index.dat real
estate issue. *That # sign info is probably why my history got corrupted*--I
know the way I stumble all over the web I have to have had a link like that.
I'll search what I have left--my history back several weeks minus the last 2
to see.

One thing I'm still confused about--if I remove Index .dat--or delete
it--(do you have to use a 3rd party program to do that? I found another one
that does that also earlier) *will I wipe out my current history saved back
several weeks?* I'm trying to avoid that. I was thinking I might do that
with the regedit on your tweak list. I'll try it first.

Have some great food down there at Mardi Gras.

Thanks,

Chad
 
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