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Corrupt Dump pattern was on my writing list for a long time. It is quite frequent and usually the consequence of Truncated Dump pattern. When we open such crash dumps we usually notice immediate errors in WinDbg output. I distinguish between 2 classes of corrupt memory dumps: totally corrupt and partially corrupt. Total corruption is less frequent, results from invalid file header and manifests itself in an error message box with the following Win32 error:

Loading Dump File [C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Application Data\Microsoft\Dr Watson\user_corrupted.dmp]
ERROR: Directory not present in dump (RVA 0x20202020)
Could not open dump file [C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Application Data\Microsoft\Dr Watson\user_corrupted.dmp], Win32 error 1392
    “The file or directory is corrupted and unreadable.”

Partially corrupt files can be loaded but some critical information is missing like the list of loaded modules and context for all or some processors. We can see lots of messages in WinDbg output like:

GetContextState failed, 0x80070026
Unable to get current machine context, Win32 error 0n38

or

GetContextState failed, 0x80004005

or

GetContextState failed, 0xD0000147

which mean:

?: kd> !error 0x80070026
Error code: (HRESULT) 0x80070026 (2147942438) - Reached the end of the file.

?: kd> !error 0x80004005
Error code: (HRESULT) 0x80004005 (2147500037) - Unspecified error

?: kd> !error 0xD0000147
Error code: (NTSTATUS) 0xd0000147 (3489661255) - {No Paging File Specified}  No paging file was specified in the system configuration.

However, in many such cases we can still see system information and bugcheck parameters:

************************************
THIS DUMP FILE IS PARTIALLY CORRUPT.
KdDebuggerDataBlock is not present or unreadable.
************************************
Unable to read PsLoadedModuleList
KdDebuggerData.KernBase < SystemRangeStart
Windows Server 2003 Kernel Version 3790 MP (4 procs) Free x86 compatible
Product: Server, suite: TerminalServer
Kernel base = 0×00000000 PsLoadedModuleList = 0×808af9c8
Debug session time: Wed Nov 21 20:29:31.373 2007 (GMT+0)
System Uptime: 0 days 0:45:02.312
Unable to read PsLoadedModuleList
KdDebuggerData.KernBase < SystemRangeStart
Loading Kernel Symbols
Unable to read PsLoadedModuleList
GetContextState failed, 0×80070026
GetContextState failed, 0×80070026
CS descriptor lookup failed
GetContextState failed, 0×80070026
GetContextState failed, 0×80070026
GetContextState failed, 0×80070026
GetContextState failed, 0×80070026
Unable to get program counter
GetContextState failed, 0×80070026
Unable to get current machine context, Win32 error 0n38
GetContextState failed, 0×80070026
GetContextState failed, 0×80070026

Use !analyze -v to get detailed debugging information.

BugCheck 20, {0, ffff, 0, 1}

***** Debugger could not find nt in module list, module list might be corrupt, error 0x80070057.

GetContextState failed, 0x80070026
Unable to read selector for PCR for processor 0
GetContextState failed, 0x80070026
Unable to read selector for PCR for processor 0
GetContextState failed, 0x80070026
Unable to read selector for PCR for processor 0
GetContextState failed, 0x80070026
GetContextState failed, 0x80070026
Unable to get current machine context, Win32 error 0n38
GetContextState failed, 0x80070026
Unable to get current machine context, Win32 error 0n38
GetContextState failed, 0x80070026

Looking at bugcheck number and parameters we can form some signature and check in our crash database (if it exists). We can also request a kernel minidump corresponding to debug session time. 

- Dmitry Vostokov @ DumpAnalysis.org -

           

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This entry was posted on Thursday, January 24th, 2008 at 2:13 pm and is filed under Crash Dump Analysis, Crash Dump Patterns. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.