Unable to Load Database/Unable to create database.

Question

RoboHelp 6.0 on my PC is suddenly unable to open existing
projects or create new ones. The problem is not in the projects, as
other people can unzip the same set of files and open them with
RoboHelp on their PCs.
The Details:
When attempting to open an existing project (any project
whether in version control or not), I get the message " Open
project was cancelled or the application was unable to load
database for..."
I found the article that says to delete the CPD and XPJ files
and then to use the Edit option to open the HHP file so that
RoboHelp will recreate the two files. When I try that, I get the
message "Unable to create database. Check that the directory is not
read-only." It's
not read-only.
When I attempt to create a new project, the application acts
like it is going to create one, but it just creates a project
folder without the new first topic and then repeats the New Project
Wizard window that prompts for title, etc. It will keep creating
folders and returning to this window in a loop without ever really
creating a project.
RoboSource Control is functioning normally, by the way.
I have uninstalled and reinstalled RH 6 several times, and
have even uninstalled RH 6 and installed to RH 5 just to see if it
could open projects, which it does with no problems. After that
test, I uninstalled RH 5 and reinstalled RH 6, only to encounter
the same problem all over again.
This started happening after I uninstalled other unrelated
software and received a message that some Service Pack 2 files had
been changed and prompting me to insert the Service Pack 2 CD,
which I don't have. This is because our IT department pre-builds
our systems from an image and then distributes job-specific
applications over the network. IT tried repairing Service Pack 2,
but that didn't work. I'd like to uninstall and reinstall Service
Pack 2, but the IT person says it's too risky on a system that was
built from an image.
We would like to find out
which files RoboHelp is looking for when it launches a
project so we can replace those files manually. Does anyone
know what they are or have another suggestion that might fix the
problem?
Otherwise, I am stuck having to allow IT to rebuild my
system. That means reinstalling and reconfiguring everything on it,
just as if I were upgrading to a new PC. This can take a whole work
week. However, I have already spent close to a work week on this
problem, so maybe rebuilding would save time in the long
run.

Answer 1

Problem Resolution = HHA.dll
For anyone who might be interested in the resolution to this
issue, we did rebuild my PC and reinstall all of my software. The
RoboHelp installation "complained" that I did not have HTML Help
Workshop on my system and told me to download version 1.4 from
Microsoft. I did have HTML Help Workshop..it's in my programs list.
(It's not listed in programs on my co-workers' PCs, and they were
not having problems, by the way.) But to make RH happy, I
uninstalled the workshop and tried to install the version from
Microsoft. But a message informed me that I already had a newer
version of the workshop on my system, and I was back where I
started. I could open projects, but there were weird problems.
Selecting Topic Properties was met with an error message, and when
the properties window opened, I could only see whatever template
was assigned (or none if the topic had lost its template), and
there was an extra section for Oracle help.
So I started dinking around in the registry to see if I could
get rid of any traces of the workshop so I could install the
version RH wanted or to find any other clues to my problem. Under
HTMLHelpAuthor, there was a reference to an HHA.dll file located in
C:\WINDOWS\system32...only the file did not exist on my system.
(Remember that my original problem was that some Service Pack 2
files were either modified or missing.) So I did a Google search on
that file name and found out that HTML Help Workshop is included in
newer Windows operating systems, but that people used to have to
get HTML Help Workshop from Microsoft, and that some people had
made the mistake of just putting the HHA.dll file into the
C:WINDOWS\system32 folder without also installing HTML Help
Workshop. At this point it was obvious that I needed the HHA.dll,
so I got it from a co-worker's PC. (Looking at the registry
entries, I can also see that my system was built with a slightly
different version of the operating system than my co-workers have.)
Adding the HHA file to my system solved the problem. All
projects but one were fine; one was still exhibiting the strange
behavior. I fixed it by going back to the RoboHelp 5 version of the
project and re-converting it to RoboHelp 6.
I suspect that if I had known about the HHA.dll file before
we rebuilt the PC, I could have solved the problem without going
through that painful process. That is why I thought I should post
the solution even though it was after the rebuild.