Vista Business (Upgrade): Services Won't/Can't run

[Richkut]

Windows Vista (Upgrade from XP Pro) PC, 2G RAM, purchased 11/07. I have two (possibly related) problems:

A few weeks ago I noticed that there was a lot of hard drive churn for a few minutes after boot up on this home PC, but read that this was normal for Vista. Around this same time, it also seemed to be running slower than my work PC running XP Pro (a comparable new PC). I am not here to discuss the merits (or lack thereof) of XP vs. Vista, but merely to resolve these two issues, if you please.

About a week ago, I received an error notice when booting that a Windows Service was unable to run (and this still occurs on every nth boot), and checking it out further this error is, “The Windows Search Service has failed to create the new system catalog. Internal Error L1, 0x80070027.” When I try to start this service under the respective Computer Management module, I am greeted with, “Could not start Windows Search on Local Computer. For more information, review the System Event Log.” So you see, I am in a loop here!!

Problem #2: Yesterday, I could NOT back up using Acronis True Image 10. When I pressed the final key before the backup sequence was to begin, an error requestor box greeted me with, “Error #1722. The RPC Service is unavailable (0xFFF0) code-800706ba tag=0xbd28fdbd64edb8a6.”

Are these problems related? My understanding now is that this (excess) churn is due to the Windows Indexing Service not being able to run (and thus has to manually review each file rather than having an index), and the Acronis backup is not working because the RPC Server is not working. Did I accidentally remove a switch or two that would cause this, or do I have to restore an earlier backup and/or reformat/reinstall Vista business? Of course, I am looking for the quickest, easiest, least painful solution, so all solid advice would be most welcome.

I thank you in advance, and look forward to resolution.

[Krispy Kritter]

I'm not using Vista, but I'm under the impression it is similar to XP.

For your first problem, checking the System Event Log may point you in the right direction ( as the error pointed out). In XP it is in Control Panel / Administrative Tools / Event Viewer.

If it is similar to XP, then the first thing I would try would be to use a Restore Point from before the problems began.

If that doesn't work, you could boot from the CD and perform a Repair.

Last resort would be a reinstall.

Of course, this is assuming all of these functions have carried over from XP.

[Richkut]

Thanks for your suggestions!

I have resolved both problems! 1) An Acronis True Image 10 uninstall/reinstall got the RPC Server running again, and allowed me to create my image backup. 2) Another site's forum advice noted that there should be two text files (gathrprm.txt and schema.txt) located in the %systemdrive%\Program Data\Microsoft\Search\Data\Config folder, of which I was missing these two files. Weird as Vista is to require text files to run a service, as soon as I copied these two files from another Vista computer my Windows Search began to function as normal. I now remember using a program a few weeks ago to eliminate duplicate files (text and graphics files, which would appear harmless until I found about Vista's quirk). Enough said? Caveat Emptor with Microsoft products!!

[TBoneit]

No it isn't a Vista or Microsoft problem. It is the program you used to eliminate duplicate files not knowing enough to leave system files alone.

You never want to delete files in the Windows or Program files folders or Documents and Settings folders unless you know what you are doing.