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How to recover corrupted Vista driver database
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05-01-2007 07:42 AM - edited 05-01-2007 07:42 AM
As a result of this damage, you could have serious problems installing new devices such as a simple USB mouse, a DVD-ROM, a PS/2 keyboard and whatever is normally detected and initialized with standard Windows drivers.
This problem has been classified by Microsoft as KB934637 and there are small fixes for both x86 and x64 versions, but they're not available with WindowsUpdate and will be included in the first Vista Service Pack.
If you're in urgent need to fix this issue, you should contact Microsoft Technical Support (if you purchased a retail/boxed Vista version) or your PC manufacturer (if you have a pre-installed OEM version).
Another workaround is to force Windows Vista rebuilding that database, 'cause it's not a pre-compiled file, but generated during Windows Vista setup process by reading all of the INF and PNF files located \Windows\INF folder of your system hard disk.
At the end of the setup process, the drivers database files are locked to prevent unauthorized access and you can't delete/rename/move them, but OS does its access each time we add or remove new hardware and drivers, and it adds or removes some records and fields.
You might be asking that being a "dynamic" file it's supposed to be erasable, to be fully rebuilt from scratch, huh?
That's right! So here is what you have to do:
(01) insert your Vista setup DVD and boot your PC from that by pressing any key when prompted;
(02) when it ask you for your language, be sure only to choose the one matching your current keyboard layout and click "Next";
(03) Windows is ready to install... but you MUST click "REPAIR YOUR COMPUTER" option, in the lower left corner of the window;
(04) System Recovery will look for installed operating systems: once found, click it and then click "Next";
(05) a quick scan for common problems will start: if something wrong is found you'll be prompted for an automatic system restore, that you shall abort by clicking "Cancel" button.
(06) Now you should see the "System Recovery Options" window: select "Command Prompt" and prepare for a tasty DOS session...
(07) go in your system disk by typing C: (or the letter corresponding to your system disk, followed by a colon);
(08) reach your INF system folder by typing CD \Windows\INF
(09) set a variable to let the file listing being sorted by extension (file type) and then by name, with folders grouped at the top by typing the following command: SET DIRCMD=/p /a /ogen
(10) now, let's get the files list: type DIR
You'll see an enormous amount of INF and PNF files, a bunch of subfolders and a few files having different extension and a really recent date: yeah... you've found them!!
(11) Let's do the hard stuff... type each one of these commands with care and being sure that your command prompt is pointing to \Windows\INF folder:
DEL DRVINDEX.DAT
DEL INFPUB.DAT
DEL INFSTOR.DAT
DEL INFSTRNG.DAT
DEL INFCACHE.*
DEL SETUPAPI.*
All of the above files shouldn't be write-protected nor hidden, so you don't have to see any error following each command.
(12) When finished, type EXIT and the command prompt window will close itself.
(13) Click "RESTART" button and remove Vista Setup DVD from optical unit.
Now, by having completely destroyed the built-in database, Windows will launch its rebuild at the first time you'll plug a new Plug'n'Play peripheral or when you'll start the "Add new hardware" procedure in Control Panel.
Hope this could be helpful for anybody experiencing the same problem.
Message Edited by LanX on 05-01-200707:46 AM
Re: How to recover corrupted Vista driver database
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05-02-2007 12:50 PM
Re: How to recover corrupted Vista driver database
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07-10-2007 05:02 PM
Re: How to recover corrupted Vista driver database
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07-10-2007 07:40 PM
Re: How to recover corrupted Vista driver database
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11-23-2007 01:21 PM
Re: How to recover corrupted Vista driver database
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12-23-2007 07:23 PM
Re: How to recover corrupted Vista driver database
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02-05-2008 11:17 AM
Re: How to recover corrupted Vista driver database
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02-05-2008 11:21 AM
Re: How to recover corrupted Vista driver database
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02-05-2008 11:28 AM
Re: How to recover corrupted Vista driver database
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02-05-2008 11:35 AM
