More great error messages

Following on from the stupid error message offered by SQL Server, and another great error message from SQL Server, I found some more…

First up is one I got some time ago while trying to back up an SQL Server database…

Not much you can say to that is there?

Bearing in mind that SQL Server Management Studio is the only piece of software I’ve ever seen that (up until recently, when someone seems to have spotted it and removed it) gave us Ctrl-C to copy a database, but no facility to paste it afterwards, you might be tempted to think that it’s only the SQL Server team who could produce such magnificent levels of stupidity. If so, then you’re probably right! I was using the SQL Server Import and Export Wizard, and it threw up the following error message (my highlight):

Error 0xc004706b: Data Flow Task 3: “Destination 14 – EntityHistory” failed validation and returned validation status “VS_ISBROKEN

I just love that last bit!

Microsoft must employ people to craft these, they just couldn€™t be there by accident. I reckon they are put there to amuse developers, and distract them from the fact that the software is misbehaving!

However, Microsoft don’t have a monopoly on stupid error messages. I recently switched from MsBuild to ReSharper Build (a great idea for those with enough sense to use R#). One of the many nice features about R# Build is that you get the build results in a structured display that allows you to filter. However, even that is not immune to stupidity…

This is the sort of thing that brightens an otherwise dull day!

Finally, whilst building a solution, my machine started behaving in a very weird manner, with applications not responding, the taskbar disappearing and so on, followed by the dreaded blue screen of death. When I checked the event log after pulling the plug out (I hate doing that!) and rebooting, I found lots of errors, which led me to a Microsoft Connect article where someone was reporting a very similar problem.

To my amazement, one of the comments by a Microsoft employee in response to this bug report was “This is known issue, this bug was resolved by mistake, we are already addressing this issue.”

Surely they didn’t mean that did they? Someone tell me I read that wrong!

Please share your favourite stupid error messages.

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