Creating Dr. Watson Crash Dumps

How to create Dr. Watson crash dumps

Introduction

If an application crashes not the whole system, then you may need to create Dr. Watson log.

(!) If the operating system crashes, not the application, then you need to create Windows mini-dumps. (See Creating Windows Mini-Dumps).

Full dumps are of considerable size (up to 800 MB), so you may be asked to use Acronis FTP Server. Please see Uploading Files to Acronis FTP Server.

(!) If Dr. Watson does not generate the dumps, use the Userdump.exe tool to generate a user dump of a process that shuts down with an exception or that stops responding (hangs). See Creating a Userdump.

Solution

Creating Dr. Watson log and crash dump file on Windows 2000/2003/XP

Press the Start button, choose Run, type drwtsn32 and hit Enter;
In the dialog that appears check the Log File Path and Crash Dump paths;
Set the Crash Dump Type to Full;
Make sure the Dump Symbol Table option is checked, then click the OK button;
Reproduce the issue;
drwtsn32.log and user.dmp files will be created in the directories specified in Log File Path and Crash Dump.
Which is usually:

\Documents and Settings\All Users\Application Data\Microsoft\Dr Watson

Creating Dr. Watson log and crash dump file on Windows Vista, Windows Server 2008, or Windows 7

Reproduce the issue (application crash);
Do not close the Application has stopped working window;
Run Task Manager (press Ctrl-Shift-Esc);
(!) If you are running a 64-bit operating system, run 32-bit Task Manager: C:\Windows\syswow64\taskmgr.exe. With the exception of the following cases:

(!) If you have Acronis Backup & Recovery 11 and Acronis Storage Node component (StorageServer.exe process) hangs or crashes on a 64-bit operating system, then use the standard Task Manager (not the 32-bit one). This applies only to Acronis Backup & Recovery 11 and StorageServer.exe.

(!) If you have Acronis Backup & Recovery 11 and Acronis Storage Node on a 64-bit operating system and service_process.exe hangs or crashes, then use the standard Task Manager (not the 32-bit one). This applies only to Acronis Backup & Recovery 11 and service_process.exe.

(!) The general rule is that if the process displayed in Task Manager has the *32 index, then use the 32-bit Task Manager (C:\Windows\syswow64\taskmgr.exe). If there is no *32 index, this is a 64-bit process:

32-bit Process 64-bit Process
Go to Processes tab and right-click on the crashed process;
Select the Create Dump File item:
Pick the .DMP file created:
Open Start-Run, type %USERPROFILE%\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Windows\WER\ReportArchive string and hit Enter:
After that you will see a folder (or a few folders), the name of which starts with Report
Collect the Report.wer file from the last created folder.
Please, send us both files: Report.wer and .dmp file.