Failed to load data access DLL, 0x80004005

Question

0:025> !pe
Failed to load data access DLL, 0x80004005
Verify that 1) you have a recent build of the debugger (6.2.14 or newer)
            2) the file mscordacwks.dll that matches your version of mscorwks.dll is 
                in the version directory
            3) or, if you are debugging a dump file, verify that the file 
                mscordacwks_<arch>_<arch>_<version>.dll is on your symbol path.
            4) you are debugging on the same architecture as the dump file.
                For example, an IA64 dump file must be debugged on an IA64
                machine.

You can also run the debugger command .cordll to control the debugger's
load of mscordacwks.dll.  .cordll -ve -u -l will do a verbose reload.
If that succeeds, the SOS command should work on retry.

If you are debugging a minidump, you need to make sure that your executable
path is pointing to mscorwks.dll as well.

After corflags.exe /32bit+ xxxx.exe to run on a 64bit server 2003, the xxxx.exe usually crash. I got this dump, on the same machine, install windbg(x86), but I can't use SOS. I googled this issue, but can't find work answer. I use the same machine, why windbg can't find what it need?

Answer 1

The problem is that the correct version of mscordacwks.dll can't be located. The DLL acts as an abstraction layer between the runtime and SOS and thus it must correspond to the version of the runtime. There's an excellent write up of the problem and its solution here http://blogs.msdn.com/dougste/archive/2009/02/18/failed-to-load-data-access-dll-0x80004005-or-what-is-mscordacwks-dll.aspx

Make sure to follow the advice on renaming the DLL very carefully, cause if you get it wrong it doesn't work and the error messages are not very helpful imo.