Externally enable minidump creation in Windows

Question

I'm still in the process of fixing this problem, and user Moab suggested analyzing the dump file created during the BSOD.
I can boot into Hiren's BootCD PE, hoping I would be able to find dump files in C:\Windows\Minidump, but there is not a single file to be found. Makes sense: I remember turning the feature off.

However, is there a way to enable the creation of (mini) dump files in a Windows 10 installation using a boot disk such as Hiren's?

Answer 1

You can set Windows to produce mini-dump by setting

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\CrashControl]
“CrashDumpEnabled”=dword:00000003

You could set it to 7 rather than 3 to get an Automatic dump. See this MS documentation.

Depending on the dump file you want to produce you'll also need to make sure that the pagefile exists and is big enough. From a boot disk you could set this key

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Session Manager\Memory Management]
"PagingFiles"="C:\pagefile.sys 400 400" 

The 400 are 400MB minimum and maximum - to set to automatic you would set the value to "C:\pagefile.sys 0 0" - This is taken from this TechNet PowerShell script.

You can do this certainly do this from a boot disk by updating the host registry. There is an external Tenforums.com tutorial on editing offline registries if you don't know how to do this. There is also a specific tutorial for using Hirens here

None of this however is going to give you a dump for a previous event though. If the dumps you want don't exist then they don't exist. Changing rules about producing them in future will only make them appear next time not retrospectively.

In that case while you could make these changes from a boot disk you could equally well make them from the failing system itself. Set the page file size to automatic, set the system to produce dumps and try to recreate the error.

Answer 2

Turns out, it can quite easily be done using the (elevated) command prompt, as long as you have access to the respective disk containing the OS:

Search for a cmd or command prompt option, and, if possible, run it as an administrator.
Navigate to the disk on which the OS is installed (e.g. C:) by typing c:, and follow this up with any of the following options:

No dump file: wmic RECOVEROS set DebugInfoType = 0
Small Memory Dump: wmic RECOVEROS set DebugInfoType = 3
Kernel Memory Dump: wmic RECOVEROS set DebugInfoType = 2
Complete Memory Dump: wmic RECOVEROS set DebugInfoType = 1
Automatic Memory Dump: wmic RECOVEROS set DebugInfoType = 7
Active Memory Dump: wmic RECOVEROS set DebugInfoType = 1

^{Source: thewindowsclub.com}