Why can't WinDBG find the mscordacwks.dll?

Question

I'm trying to use WinDBG to analyze a crash dump from one of our production machines. The root of my problem seems to be that I have a different build of the .NET framework than the production machine, only I don't know how to fix the problem. When I turn !sym noisy and then run !dlk(from SOSEX) I get the following error as it tries to find the mscordacwks dll

0:000> !dlk
CLRDLL: c:\WINDOWS\Microsoft.NET\Framework\v2.0.50727\mscordacwks.dll:2.0.50727.3623 f:0
doesn't match desired version 2.0.50727.3607 f:0
SYMSRV:  c:\mysymbols\mscordacwks_x86_x86_2.0.50727.3607.dll\4ADD5446590000\mscordacwks_x86_x86_2.0.50727.3607.dll not found
SYMSRV:  http://msdl.microsoft.com/download/symbols/mscordacwks_x86_x86_2.0.50727.3607.dll/4ADD5446590000/mscordacwks_x86_x86_2.0.50727.3607.dll not found
SYMSRV:  c:\mysymbols\mscordacwks_x86_x86_2.0.50727.3607.dll\4ADD5446590000\mscordacwks_x86_x86_2.0.50727.3607.dll not found
SYMSRV:  c:\mysymbols\mscordacwks_x86_x86_2.0.50727.3607.dll\4ADD5446590000\mscordacwks_x86_x86_2.0.50727.3607.dll not found
SYMSRV:  http://msdl.microsoft.com/download/symbols/mscordacwks_x86_x86_2.0.50727.3607.dll/4ADD5446590000/mscordacwks_x86_x86_2.0.50727.3607.dll not found
SYMSRV:  c:\mysymbols\mscordacwks_x86_x86_2.0.50727.3607.dll\4ADD5446590000\mscordacwks_x86_x86_2.0.50727.3607.dll not found
CLRDLL: Unable to find mscordacwks_x86_x86_2.0.50727.3607.dll by mscorwks search
CLRDLL: Unable to find 'mscordacwks_x86_x86_2.0.50727.3607.dll' on the path
SYMSRV:  c:\mysymbols\mscorwks.dll\4ADD5446590000\mscorwks.dll not found
SYMSRV:  http://msdl.microsoft.com/download/symbols/mscorwks.dll/4ADD5446590000/mscorwks.dll not found
SYMSRV:  c:\mysymbols\mscorwks.dll\4ADD5446590000\mscorwks.dll not found
DBGHELP: C:\Program Files\Debugging Tools for Windows (x86)\mscorwks.dll - file not found
SYMSRV:  c:\mysymbols\mscorwks.dll\4ADD5446590000\mscorwks.dll not found
SYMSRV:  http://msdl.microsoft.com/download/symbols/mscorwks.dll/4ADD5446590000/mscorwks.dll not found
SYMSRV:  c:\mysymbols\mscorwks.dll\4ADD5446590000\mscorwks.dll not found
CLRDLL: Unable to find mscorwks.dll by search
CLRDLL: ERROR: Unable to load DLL mscordacwks_x86_x86_2.0.50727.3607.dll, Win32 error 0n2
Unable to initialize .NET data interface. Version 2.0.50727.3607 of mscordacwks.dll is required.
Locate and load the correct version of mscordacwks.dll. See documentation for the .cordll command.

I took the mscorwks.dll, mscordawks.dll and sos.dll from the production machine and placed them in C:\mysymbols. It looks like WinDBG is looking for a dll INSIDE the mscorwks dll.

Answer 1

This very complete explanation by Doug Stewart helped me in this situation.

Summary:

• Get the mscordacwks.dll from the original system.
• Rename it to something like mscordacwks_AAA_AAA_2.0.50727.xxxx.dll (depending on your architecture and the specific framework version) - e.g. mscordacwks_x86_x86_2.0.50727.3607.dll for the specific case in the question.
• Copy that file into the directory of windbg.exe.