25 CommentsHow to fix “Failed to install catalog files” error
I was installing Service Pack 3 for Windows XP and suddenly it gave “Failed to install catalog files” error and interrupted process. I am big fan of figure it out method instead of classic nuke and reinstall Windows so took my time fixing it.
Symptoms
- error appeared during install process, after initial system check but before any changes were made;
- error appeared at creating system restore point stage which made issue even more weird because system restore was disabled;
- both offline install package and online update gave same error, excluding corrupted setup files.
Support
After some googling I found extensive Microsoft Knowledge Base article aptly named You cannot install some updates or programs. Article covers numerous and quite different errors related to updates, as well as over ten suggestions on fixing.
There is no direct relation between specific errors and fixes so I had to read everything and figure out where to start. Most common culprits seemed to be cryptographic service and security catalog. Catalog stuff sounded like a closest match to error.
Steps to fix
Security catalog is part of Windows that handles digital signatures for updates, system file protection and other stuff. It resides in two folders:
- C:\Windows\system32\CatRoot
- C:\Windows\system32\CatRoot2
Fixes suggested:
- deleting CatRoot2 (safe operation as it is re-created by Windows on next boot);
- manual cleanup in CatRoot (not safe to delete) and other folders related to updates.
Exact steps I took for cleanup:
- Deleted CatRoot2 folder. Some files inside were locked by system so I had to use FileASSASSIN and schedule pending delete.
- Deleted all tmp*.cat files in CatRoot subfolders.
- Deleted all kb*.cat files in CatRoot subfolders.
- Deleted all oem*.* files in C:\Windows\INF folder.
- Deleted all files and folders in C:\Windows\SoftwareDistribution folder.
After that SP3 installed perfectly.
Overall
Security Catalog is not known to cause much trouble but it can create issues. Cleanup is not as easy as with usual temporary files because deleting too much may break Windows Update completely.
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best solution, thank you
@gökhan
Glad it was useful to you. :)
Thanks so much for posting this. Worked for me as well.
@Travis
You are welcome. :) It seems to be one of less known troubles so I am glad that my roundup works for others as well as it did for me.
Just used above steps and it worked. Thank you.
@Daniel
You are welcome. :) Seems my recipe is about right enough to help without tons of additional stuff MS offers to try.
Hi,
Its worked fine we are able to install SP2 on server 2003 also with the above concept
@Vamshi
Win2003 is close to XP in mechanics so it’s not unusual for same recipes to work. Good luck to your server. :)
Thanks. Worked great for me for getting past the “catalog files” error when updating from XP Home SP2 to SP3. I was getting other strange errors with XP SP2 (lost network card, auto login of Skype, loss of ability for user login (but OK in safe mode). Now all OK. Don’t really know if deleting (corrupt) Cat stuff or the installation of SP3 was the cure, but either way, I’m a Happy Punter. Thanks again for posting fix.
@sammie
You are welcome. :)
Rest of stuff fixed was probably because SP3 replaced some previously broken system files. It overwrites like half of OS (especially if unpatched).
Well, that seems to have worked. Thanks for the solution. I was having a really frustrating time with this. :)
@Kilgore Trout
Heh, I so understand. :)
Thank you for posting this solution. I’ve struggled with trying to get a machine upgraded to SP3 for over a week. This solution was the one to finally take care of the problem.
@Debbie
It would be pure evil to not share it. :) Glad it resolved issue for you as well.
We used this to install updates KB961118 and KB967715. This was an issue for hours of troubleshooting. No other solutions were working. Thanks so much!
@PaulM
You are welcome. :) Thanks for info that it can come up on non-SP updates as well.
WOW! Wish I had found this site 6 hours ago! You rock!!!!! THANKS!!!!!
@Steve Berlin
You are welcome. :)
Q; i have an hp nx6125 which is refusing to see the hard drive at times,if i try to load win xp2 it passes an error which says”failed to install catalog files xp” and @ times it say setup did not find any hard disks installed.i am not a technical person.Plzzzzz help
@webster
It’s bit hard to explain but motherboards can operate SATA hard drives in two modes IDE (legacy) and AHCI. XP is oldish so it won’t do clean install (if that’s what you are doing) with AHCI unless drivers are provided.
On other hand I am not sure this is your problem. Could be just as well hardware issue or anything in between. I strongly suggest you contact HP support (if you have that option) or start looking for friendly computer geek who will sort it out for you.
Excellent work. Help me load SVC pack 3 on a clients computer that had this issue.
Added to my list of XP fixes.
@Bob
Glad it was of use. :) Windows is already two versions ahead but XP has such a strong base that I wonder how many more clients with this issue we’ll see in following years.
Nice solution… the link and soltion by Microsoft suggests that the error lies with corruption relating to the Cryptographic Services
key: ‘you cannot install some updates’
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/822798
Along the same vane, I’ve seen perfectly good installs totally blown because of permission errors in the registry…
key: ‘When you try to install Windows XP Service Pack’
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/949377
@e.r.lehmann
Thanks for your input and links! Method in post seems to help often, but is certainly not universal.