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windbgdebug-symbols

What do the various convertstore errors mean?

I am trying to convert a 2 tier symbol store into a 3-tier symbol store using the convertstore.exe tool as described by Microsoft.

However, I get error messages which do not tell me much. Depending on which store I want to convert I get the following errors:

  • Failed initial checks.
  • Failed to lock Symbol Store. Error 0x00000003.
  • ERROR: Couldn't create X:\...\index2.txt. Error 0x00000005.

Sometimes convertstore seems to run without error message, but it hasn't converted the store.

What do these error messages mean and how to mitigate them?

Solution

  • Failed initial checks.

    Possible causes:

    1. This error can happen if you run convertstore without any arguments.

      Mitigation: Use the correct syntax convertstore.exe -s <store>

    2. The symbol store is already a 3-tier store

      Mitigation: none, if the symbol store is already a 3-tier store. The tool will only convert in one direction. It cannot convert back and forth.

      Mitigation: If it isn't a 3-tier store, delete the file index2.txt.

    Failed to lock Symbol Store. Error 0x00000003.

    Possible causes:

    1. The symbol store does not have a pingme.txt or 000Admin folder.

      Mitigation: specify a symbol store, not an arbitrary folder that happens to contain some symbols.

      Mitigation: create a zero byte file pingme.txt and an empty folder 000Admin.

    Failed to move <pdb> > <pdb>. Error 0x00000005.

    Possible causes:

    1. The file is currently in use.

      Mitigation: close other programs that may currently access the file, then delete index2.txt and run the command again.

    2. You don't have write access to the symbol store.

      Mitigation: use SysInternals Process Monitor to diagnose the issue. Note that convertstore will not use the drive letters of mapped network shares, but use the SMB share name instead.

    Couldn't create index2.txt. Error 0x00000005.

    Possible causes:

    1. You don't have write access to the symbol store.

      Mitigation: use SysInternals Process Monitor to diagnose the issue. Note that convertstore will not use the drive letters of mapped network shares, but use the SMB share name instead.

    Failed to move <pdb> > <pdb>. Error 0x000000B7.

    Possible causes:

    1. The destination file already exists in the 3-tier part of the store. Someone worked on the symbol store in the meanwhile and downloaded new symbols, storing them in the 2-tier format. You now have them in two locations: a 2-tier folder and a 3-tier folder.

      Mitigation: delete the 2-tier version manually.

    No error message

    Possible causes:

    1. convertstore x64 version 10.0.22000.1 suffers from an access violation at convertstore!ConvertAdminFileW+0x1c9

      Mitigation: submit the crash dump to Microsoft and hope that they will fix this. Then run the x86 (32 bit) version.