Windows 7 Windows Search service will not start

I have a Windows 7 machine. It had an 80GB HDD that was full, so I imaged it to a 500GB HDD. When I put the bigger drive in and started up, everything seemed to be perfect except for the search feature in Outlook. I followed the trail to the Windows Search service which will not start. When I go into Services and try to start it, it says:

"The Windows Search Service on local computer started and then stopped. Some services stop automatically if they are not in use by other services or programs."

I did a google search and found this in the MS KB:
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2484025

This outlines my issue exactly. When I went to the folder they directed me to, I found 21 files with the extensions they said. I tried to delete them all but three will not delete, saying that they are in use by System. I tried to use Killbox to remove them but Killbox gives me an error when trying to delete them...maybe I'm using it wrong? Even if I'm able to remove all the files I'm not sure that will fix my problem, but I feel like it's the first step to getting this resolved. Any help would be greatly appreciated!

 

There are actually two search services now for Windows. Can you show in Task manager, Services, or Error Report what the message you are getting, when you attempt to run this service.

Also have you gone through the info in the Malware forum to double check, to make sure the machine is not infected?

 

Thank you for taking my case Brownizs.

1. I have not gone through a detailed malware check because this issue happened after the image and search worked before the image so I'm assuming that it is related to the image. There are not any other symptoms of malware, but if you think I need to check it I will.

2. Can you tell me how to find in Error Report the message you need? The only error message I know if is the one I posted which pops up when trying to start the service.

Thanks again!

 

Administrative Tools, then look for "Event Viewer". http://windows.microsoft.com/en-ID/windows7/What-are-Administrative-Tools

 

Hi Brownisz I am attaching the event viewer file. Can you tell me what you see?

 

Not all of us run Windows. I run Linux Mint on my Laptop, some on here run Mac OS-X. If you wish for others to read that event log, you need to just post a screen shot of anything you have in question, or find the .log file for that particular part of the Event viewer.

 

Sorry about that, I should not have assumed that you ran Windows. I don't have enough knowledge to know what to look for in terms of a .log file or what I should be taking screen shots of. I was hoping I could find someone to walk me through it baby-step by baby-step. I guess I'll have to do some more research.

 

OK I'm getting closer, maybe you can help me get over the hump?

this post I found explains my problem exactly and the scenario is the same (windows search service does not work after cloning to a larger hdd)
http://bostonit.com/KnowledgeBase-L...dates-Error-2147217025-After-Clone-Image.html

My problem now is I'm getting stuck trying to install Intel RST driver. First of all, I'm running Windows 7 32-bit. When I try to install the driver I found on Intel's website it says that my computer doesn't meet the requirements to run the software. Any ideas?

 

I would not worry about it. You may not need the RST, since you are not running RAID. Go through the Malware info on checking the machine, it may fix the issue.

To tell you the honest truth, I have just gotten tired of the mess that Microsoft has created with Windows, and how bad it is moving in the wrong direction, so decided to go back to running Linux. Used to run Ubuntu on my old Netbook, which my daughter now has, which runs Windows 7, but have to run Linux Mint Cinnamon 15 on this Toshiba Satellite I have.

I do not miss windows one bit, due to all the issues they have created. I know what you are talking about with the Search issue, and it is hard to replicate on another machine, unless you happen to have the issue on it also.

You can try booting into Safe mode and see if you can fix the issue that way, but there are just times you have to do a Repair install to fix things, then there is the time you just blow everything away and do a full reinstall of the OS, if you cannot fix the problem. The later, you better make sure stuff you want to keep is on a cloud or NAS drive.