Tons of Corrupt files in Vista x64 Windows\servicing\packages

[Frutchy]

Hi,

First time here, first time I try to use the Windows Repair TooL.
Trying to fix a friend's computer that would get a KSOD before logon.
Having mounted the drive on my own computer, I found that ThrustedInstaller had disappeared, both as Owner and Access Control Entries.
I fixed that more or less (manually, so not necessarily with the right settings) and was able to boot into Vista again.

After that, CHKDSK found some minor issues.
After some web browsing, I found that often this problem is originally caused by bad Intel Raid Rapid Storage Technology drivers.
Although this machine is not configured as Raid, it does use such drivers. So, I update these.

SFC finds a couple of errors and none of the ways I found to reestablish correct access rights wants to work (secedit to try and create a new security database from a Template, and so on).

Windows Update won't work: It says Service is not running but it is.
Then I discovered that the Cryptsvc is not there.

I guess it still has all to do with wrong acccess rights.

The Windows Repair Tool finds litterally thousands of corrupt files in Windows\Servicing, mentioning Bad Digital Signature.
If this is true, then it will be impossible to manually find and copy all the corrupt files, they are way too many.
In that case, would it be wise to just discard the Windows Update Distribution information?
Would that force Windows Update to newly download all packages or is this the wrong way to solve the issue?

On the other hand, I have difficulties in believing that all these files are really corrupt.
So it might still be an access rights problem...

I would highly appreciate any help here. I'm stuck!
Thanks in advance.

Ronald

[Frutchy]

I just read the topic "Missing Windows Servicing Packages files & update problems" which seems similar.

Some additional information: The pre-scan report is 834 Kbytes and reports tons of different packages, unlike the other topic.

The system says it has 356 updates installed for Windows only (so not including Office, .Net Framework, etc).

Yet another question: Would it be possible to reinstall the SP2?
Would that force Windows Update to download all corrupt packages again?

Ronald

[Willy2]

- Run Windows Repair first. It restores a whole bunch of Services.

[Frutchy]

- Run Windows Repair first. It restores a whole bunch of Services.

Well, that is what I did awaiting some response from the Forum.
It ran for about 75 minutes and the results are promising: Windows Update has started searching for updates again...

I will run further tests and keep you posted.
In particular, I will do the prescan again to see what it has to say now about those tons of currupted files in Windows\sdervicing\packages...

Thanks

[Willy2]

- Is Cryptsvc back ? It's important for those "damaged/corrupted" files.

[Frutchy]

More results:
•   Yep, Cryptsvc is back and running!
•   Pre-scan (run this time in Normal Mode, not Fail Safe) found again tons of files in Windows\servicing\packages with corrupt signature.
        - Registering the report into a text file takes ages…
        - I converted both the initial and second pre-scan reports into Word and compared them:
          The prescan done after the repair job is nearly identical to the initial one. At one place it has just 21 more files indicated as having a corrupt signature.
        - The initial run said it had 5786 files handled.
          The second run says 5828 files.
        - 3 reparse points less in the second run (and still quite some left).
        - In total, the Word files containing the reports count over 11000 lines.
          I counted 3 lines per error, thus this would mean I have some 3600 corrupted files?
         Can a system still run with all that?
        - After successful installation of those updates, I ran the pre-scan again. It still shows tons of corrupted files.
•   Windows Update is fine again:
        - It found 97 new Updates, of which 68 pure Windows updates.
        - One of the updates was the System Update Readiness Tool that refused to run before the repair. It installed properly.
        - Total time of installation of all the updates was something like 3 hours.
           I guess the System Update Readiness Tool has to do with that as well.
•   3rd pre-scan run, after these Windows Updates (run in Normal Mode):
        - Shows some 100+ more files with corrupted signature than the prescan done after the repair job…
        - This time, it says it handled 6630 files.
        - It looks like every single file in there is considered as having a corrupted signature...

Global intermediate conclusion:
•   The Windows Repair Tool definitely did some good things, since Windows Update is running OK now and updates do get installed.
•   Cold system start up takes more time after than before the repair job (about 2 minutes, which is quite much, given the system specs).
•   Another mystery I have not been able to sort out is that after a cold start the network connection icon in the status bar keeps showing a red cross for minutes, way after everything else is up and running. This is something my friend complained about since long and has remained unchanged.
        - I did check the repair options for everything that has to do with network but it hasn’t changed anything.
        - I notice that the red cross disappears at just about the same moment when an HP alert pops up to tell it can’t find the printer (which is true since the printer is in my friend’s house). I have had serious slowdown problems due to HP software looking every 30 seconds for an absent printer on a laptop. This proved to be because during installation I checked a box stating that I wanted the system to always warn about ink levels…
•   The Windows event log only shows 2 minor errors at start up related to HP CueDeviceDiscovery and a missing driver for i8042prt, nothing else. I’m quite sure that the HP CueDeviceDiscovery message has something to do with the afore mentioned delay before networking is established. These messages have been around since long at start up.
•   Apart from the long start up and the long time it takes before the network connection is ready (cable connection), the system is perfectly stable.
I will do some more testing tomorrow (it’s over midnight here now).

Thank you anyhow for this great tool.
Even though everything is not sorted out yet, it did its thing!

[Willy2]

- How many succesful & failed updates do you have currently ?
- Vista "takes its time" to install all the updates.
- Given the total amount of "damaged" files I would assume that the Service called "WSearch" hasn't been updated. Solution: Disable the Service WSearch. It will decrease the start up time.
- Some updates replace older updates. So, those damaged files could be not too meaningful.
- Do you have a Vista installation disk ? If yes, then I personally would recommend a new fresh re-install.
- Recommendation: Set Windows Update (WU) to "Notify before download". Then you can pick a time when you & your system have enough time/resources to update. When WU asks you to restart your system then ALWAYS decline. WU simply will have wait until you shut down your system. This is a GOOD recipe for minimizing the risk of failed updates.

[Frutchy]

Hi Willy2,

All 97 today's updates installed successfully.
In total, there are now 525 updates installed but that includes all products.
For some strange reason I can't get the updates to sort by product anymore.

And there are other strange things going on: Most of the listed updates have icons which look like a sheet of paper.
When I hover the mouse over them the icons become nearly normal, i.e. they get the "normal" generic icon one sees with programmes which don't set an explicit icon, like ERUNT for instance. But none of the updates get their own icon from their mother program (the Office icon, Adobe Reader...). Real strange...

I know about the indexing stuff. But that is not what is happening here. I know how to handle that.
Indexing generates heavy disk activity and that is not the c

Sorry: my cat walked on the keyboard...

Let me finish...
So, when start up is slow, there is no heavy disk activity.
And yes, in this particular case, reinstall might be the only ultimate way out of trouble.
I don't like doing that since then we never learn about what went wrong...

[Rick]

Hi Willy2,

All 97 today's updates installed successfully.
In total, there are now 525 updates installed but that includes all products.
For some strange reason I can't get the updates to sort by product anymore.

And there are other strange things going on: Most of the listed updates have icons which look like a sheet of paper.
When I hover the mouse over them the icons become nearly normal, i.e. they get the "normal" generic icon one sees with programmes which don't set an explicit icon, like ERUNT for instance. But none of the updates get their own icon from their mother program (the Office icon, Adobe Reader...). Real strange...

I know about the indexing stuff. But that is not what is happening here. I know how to handle that.
Indexing generates heavy disk activity and that is not the c

Sorry: my cat walked on the keyboard...

Let me finish...
So, when start up is slow, there is no heavy disk activity.
And yes, in this particular case, reinstall might be the only ultimate way out of trouble.
I don't like doing that since then we never learn about what went wrong...

I too recently had a similar situtation; did a repair install... that is the only thing that will work with all the issues your having?
you have a vista disk?

[Frutchy]

Hi Rick,

No, I don't have the installation disk.
I have standard Vista x32 and x64, but this system is one of those awkward HP systems with Vista x64 and Media Center...

[Shane]

If you are still getting a lot of .mum files with bad signatures it is because the windows catalog database is messed up or missing files. So in the pre scan tool put a check on the box to add the .cat files back to the windows catalog database, then run the pre-scan again.

.mum files dont have a digital signature, so the signature is instead inside the cat files, which when the windows api goes to look up the signature and the cat file isnt in the database then it will report bad signature. So see if that check box does the trick for you on that

Shane