How to create Dr. Watson crash dumps

Introduction

If an application crashes in Windows 2000, Windows XP or Windows Server 2003 not the whole system, then you may need to create Dr. Watson log.
(!) If an application crashes in Windows Vista of later, create a dump with ProcDump, see Creating Process Dumps with ProcDump

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 ProcDump tool to generate a user dump of a process that shuts down with an exception or that stops responding (hangs). See Creating Process Dumps with ProcDump.

Solution

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

1. Press the Start button, choose Run, type drwtsn32 and hit Enter;
2. In the dialog that appears check the Log File Path and Crash Dump paths;
3. Set the Crash Dump Type to Full;
4. Make sure the Dump Symbol Table option is checked, then click the OK button;
5. Reproduce the issue;
6. 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

   

More information

(!) If the operating system becomes unresponsive, you can force system crash from the keyboard. See Microsoft Knowledge Base Article 244139.

If an application crashes in Windows Vista of later, create a dump with Procdump, see Creating Process Dumps with ProcDump