Preamble
In Windows, when the operating system crashes, an emergency memory dump is automatically created and saved in the Windows system directory in the MEMORY.DMP file (%SystemRoot%\MEMORY.DMP).
This file helps to determine the cause of operating system failure and determine the process that may have caused the OS to shut down. The memory dump file can be several gigabytes in size, so special tools are required to analyze it.
The steps to be taken to analyze the MEMORY.DMP emergency memory dump file
To read the MEMORY.DMP file, you will need a special utility: Debugging Tools for Windows (WinDbg), which is part of Windows 10 SDK, you can download it here: Windows 10 SDK, both as an installer and as an ISO file.
The SDK (software development kit) is a development kit that allows software professionals to create applications for a specific software package, software basic development tools, hardware platform, computer system, game consoles, operating systems and other platforms.
Installing Debugging Tools for Windows from the Software Development Kit (SDK)
1. Run the installation file on the computer where the MEMORY.DMP emergency memory dump analysis will be performed.
2. Select the installation path and press Next 2 times.
3. Adopt license agreement
4. Select Debugging Tools for Windows in the window of selecting a set of utilities to be installed (you won’t need any other items to analyze the memory dump) and press Install
5. When the installation is complete, press Close
The Debugging Tools for Windows utility is installed.
MEMORY.DMP emergency memory dump analysis
1. Run the installed WinDbg utility and select Open Crash Dump in the File menu.
2. In the file opening window, go to the MEMORY.DMP file path and open it
3. After studying the headlines, click on the link: !analyze -v or enter this command manually
4. Waiting for some time for the utility to read the file and search for errors
5. Analyzing information about the process that caused Windows to crash
Using this information, you can understand which process caused the OS crash.
If the specified process belongs to the software manufacturer, you can refer to it with the corresponding case.
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