Re: Postgres 9.2.4 for Windows (Vista) Dell Vostro 400, re-installation failure PLEASE CAN SOMEONE HELP!!

On Jul 31, 2013, at 14:07, "Stephen Brearley" <mail(at)stephenbrearley(dot)name> wrote:

> Hi Alban
>
> Much thanks for getting back to me!
>
> The event file gets written to (as attached):
> C:\Users\SDB\AppData\Local\Temp

That's the installation log, not the postgres log.
I suspect the postgres log is either in the Windows Event Log (available from the Control Panel, perhaps under Administrative Tools or something similar) or in a file somewhere in the Postgres installation directory, most likely in a directory named log. I don't know how EnterpriseDB sets things up though, certainly not in Windows.

Nevertheless, from the installation log it can be seen that initdb was run and that after that the database started up successfully.

It also shows that some module named "adminpack" failed to install. I have no idea what that is though, I don't have it on my UNIX system.
See:

Script output:
Installing the adminpack module in the postgres database...
Executing 'C:\Users\SDB\AppData\Local\Temp\rad5E7BA.bat'...
Couldn't find the output file...
Failed to install the 'adminpack' module in the 'postgres' database
loadmodules.vbs ran to completion

Script stderr:
Program ended with an error exit code

Error running cscript //NoLogo "C:\Program Files\PostgreSQL\9.2\installer\server\loadmodules.vbs" "postgres" "****" "C:\Program Files\PostgreSQL\9.2" "D:\_SDB\Database\RDBMS\PostgreSQL\9.2\data" 5432 : Program ended with an error exit code

So, whatever causes your issue is most likely due to something that happened after the install.

> I copied the contents of the /data directory to the D: drive, then changed
> the folder reference in the Registry. However, after this I was able to

Did you first stop the database? If not, chances are you didn't get a consistent copy, because the database was working on those files while you were copying them.
Oh, and I assume your D: drive isn't some kind of network drive or something, but an actual disk with NTFS on it?

> create tables in Navicat without any problems, until I tried to use pgAdmin
> when it required my password, which I had forgotten. Then I tried to
> reinstall, and started having these problems..

So all the above is from before you uninstalled/reinstalled? Or is that log file you attached from the reinstall?
In that case, it seems to have known about your data-directory on D: during the install, looking at this snippet:

Loading additional SQL modules...
Executing cscript //NoLogo "C:\Program Files\PostgreSQL\9.2\installer\server\loadmodules.vbs" "postgres" "****" "C:\Program Files\PostgreSQL\9.2" "D:\_SDB\Database\RDBMS\PostgreSQL\9.2\data" 5432
Script exit code: 2

It exits with code 2, which indicates an error. Perhaps the logs (see earlier) say why.

> I'm being recommended to try running pg_dump by Thomas Kellerer, then remove
> all my data folders and a reinstall. I get the feeling it is not moving my
> data to the D: drive that has caused the problem, but that the Uninstall has
> not cleaned this out correctly, as I moved my data to D:/../data_old to
> enable Postgres to reinstall and used the installation Wizard to point to my
> data location, but still get installation errors and a connection problem,
> despite using the 'correct' password.

I doubt that the uninstaller would remove your data directory, because then you would lose your data. You don't want that, it's generally better to leave decisions like that up to the administrator (you). That data is more often than not quite valuable ;)

> When I start pgAdmin, TaskManager shows that Postgres is running, -so I
> don't think I have an unrecoverable database snapshot?

That Postgres appears to be running is encouraging.

Something worth verifying; open a command prompt and type netstat -an and look whether the port you configured Postgres to run on is being listened on.

If it is, then your issue is just a connection issue. Perhaps you could elaborate on what you're doing to connect and what error you receive?

It's possible that you locked yourself out through the pg_hba.conf file or that you need to reset the password for the postgres user. But we don't know that yet...

> -----Original Message-----
> From: Alban Hertroys [mailto:haramrae(at)gmail(dot)com]
> Sent: 31 July 2013 11:48
> To: Stephen Brearley
> Cc: 'Adrian Klaver'; pgsql-general(at)postgresql(dot)org
> Subject: Re: [GENERAL] Postgres 9.2.4 for Windows (Vista) Dell Vostro 400,
> re-installation failure PLEASE CAN SOMEONE HELP!!
>
> On Jul 31, 2013, at 12:07, "Stephen Brearley" <mail(at)stephenbrearley(dot)name>
> wrote:
>
>> Both the install and uninstall should work flawlessly. The only thing
>> I can see is that I have installed the program once before, and I have
>> put my data on my d: drive to separate it from the program in case of
>> software problems, but I got Postgresql to correctly find my data before..
>
>
> If Postgres is having any issues starting up, details should be in the log
> file. I don't know where that file gets written on a Windows system though,
> perhaps it ends up in the Windows Event log?
>
> What procedure did you follow to move your data to the D-drive? That seems a
> likely cause of trouble, especially if the database was running while you
> did that - you may be looking at an unrecoverable database snapshot if you
> didn't take precautions, in which case the database would refuse to start
> up.
>
> Alban Hertroys
> --
> If you can't see the forest for the trees, cut the trees and you'll find
> there is no forest.
>
> <install-postgresql.log>

Alban Hertroys
--
If you can't see the forest for the trees,
cut the trees and you'll find there is no forest.