An unexpected side effect of storing short directory paths

This is a bit off the topic, too, but I'm running a time consuming process on two other machines right now...

I run a web server in my basement on DSL. Over the weekend I decided to finally upgrade the 80 GB hard disk that had been spinning practically non-stop for 18 months with a shiny new 160 GB disk. Seagate provides a copy utility that runs under windows, so I rebooted in Safe Mode (assuring that virtually all my services were shut down), ran the copy, shut down, pulled the old drive, strapped the new one as a master, and rebooted.

Everything came right up.  Except for SQL Server.  My website is a derivative of I Buy Spy, so I basically had nothing showing.  I tried to manually start the SQL Server service and was ever so pleased to see the error message "Cannot start service. Error 3: File not found." Just which file is left as an exercise for the reader. My Event Log displayed the exact same error.

I searched Google for "SQL Server" and "File Not Found" and got plenty of hits, but no help. I opened the Service manage, stared at the properties of the SQL Service, and noted the name of the exe it launched.  I thought if I ran it manually I might get more info.  I located it, double clicked it, and it opened a command window and announced that it was opening files, starting this and that, and trying to log in as the disabled "guest" account.  It seemed to run fine.  Hmmm.

Then I looked more closely at the path to the exe. It pointed to binn in the Microsoft SQL Server directory in Program Files, but the pat used the short versions; .../PROGRA~1/MICROS~2/...  An inspiration struck.  I used "dir /ad /x" to look at the short names of my program file directories, and indeed, Microsoft SQL Server's was different!

I used RegEdit to locate and change the nasty string, and SQL Server came right up! A happy ending at last. And the moral of this story is: don't store paths in short name format.  All your testing may not uncover a single problem, but you can create some hideous problems for your users.

Published 23 August 04 11:29 by vank

Comments

# Jerry Pisk said on August 23, 2004 12:18 PM:
I'll add to it - turn off short names completely. That way you'll learn not to rely on them as a developer. http://www.microsoft.com/windows2000/techinfo/reskit/en-us/prork/pree_exa_waok.asp
# Mark said on August 23, 2004 12:53 PM:
It's funny that you mention Google. The first thing I used to try if something MS related wasnt working for me was to go to MSDN site. MSDN comes up with so many hits that are totally unrelated to my problem. Now I use google for my searches. Invaribly the first hit is usually what I am looking for. I guess I am not the only one to choose google over MSDN :-)
# vank said on August 23, 2004 1:29 PM:
You can also narrow the search on Google by adding the site. for example:
"find this" "find that" site:msdn.microsoft.com
# Jerry Pisk said on August 23, 2004 6:36 PM:
Or you can search Microsoft related sites at http://www.google.com/microsoft.html
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