RACAgent Scheduled Task Nonexistent

There are no special steps - setting up a task in Task Scheduler is pretty much just following the guidelines and prompts (which you say you know).  If in setting up the task you get an error that a service is not started, then go to Start / Control Panel / Administrative tools / Services and make sure that service (and all its dependencies) are set on automatic and started.

I hope this helps.  If you run into any problems, just post back and we'll address them.

Good luck!

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Lorien - MCSE/MCSA/Network+/A+ --- If this post helps to resolve your issue, please click the "Mark as Answer" or "Helpful" button at the top of this message. By marking a post as Answered, or Helpful you help others find the answer faster.

Hi Brandon Taylor,

 

 

The RACAgent scheduled task runs by default after the operating system is installed. If it is disabled, it must be enabled manually from the Task Scheduler snap-in for Microsoft Management Console (MMC).

 

Membership in the localAdministrators group, or equivalent, is the minimum required to complete this procedure.

 

Method 1

To enable the RACAgent schedule task follow the link given below.

Enable Data Collection for Reliability Monitor

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc766393(WS.10).aspx

Method 2

If that does not help then you may try to Reset Reliability Monitor

1.      Clear Your Windows 7 Problem Report History.

NOTE: This will need to do step 6 at that link above to delete all problems.

2.      If Reliablity Monitor is open, then close it.

3.      Open Folder Options and select (dot) the Show hidden files and folders option and click on OK.

4.      Open Windows Explorer and navigate to C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\RAC.

5.      To Backup this Reliabilty History Data –

WARNING: While this is an optional step, you will not be able to restore this data if you do not backup this data and it will be gone for good. If you want to skip this, then continue to step 6 instead.
A) Copy both the PublishedData and StateData folders and paste them to another location as a backup.

6.      Open the PublishedData folder.

7.      Select all the files in the folder and click on Delete.

8.      Click on Yes to approve.

9.      Open the StateData folder.

10.  Select all the files in the folder and click on Delete

11.  Click on Yes to approve.

If prompted by UAC, then you will need to click on Yes for each UAC prompt for each file in the

12.  StateData folders to approve deleting each file one by one.

13.  Close Windows Explorer.

14.  Empty the Recycle Bin.

15.  Open Folder Options and select (dot) they Don't show hidden files and folders option and click on OK.

16.  Open Reliablity Monitor to see it now reset clean.

NOTE: If Reliablity Monitor is already open, then close and reopen it.

 

 

Hope this information is helpful.

Amrita M

Microsoft Answers Support Engineer
Visit our Microsoft Answers Feedback Forum and let us know what you think.

Hi Amrita,

How in heaven's name did you get all that from what was posted?  What did I miss?

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Lorien - MCSE/MCSA/Network+/A+ --- If this post helps to resolve your issue, please click the "Mark as Answer" or "Helpful" button at the top of this message. By marking a post as Answered, or Helpful you help others find the answer faster.

All attempts have failed! Upon attempting to re-create the task, Task Scheduler says "A task or folder with this name already exists." even when this is (apparently) not the case!

Resetting Reliability Monitor also has no effect.

Does the situation, then, force a reinstall of the OS itself?

What other steps can I take to restore this scheduled task?

Brandon Taylor

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Brandon Taylor

Who Moved My Tasks!?

Upon further review, I discovered that the Tasks folder I needed was not C:\Windows\Tasks, but C:\Windows\System32\Tasks. It seems that, when I had to break into the Registry to dump the subkey associated with the Task Scheduler (HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Schedule\TaskCache) to alleviate a problem with Task Scheduler, doing so deleted the RACAgent task from the Task Scheduler, but left behind an orphaned file (C:\Windows\System32\Tasks\Microsoft\Windows\RAC\RACAgent). As long as this orphaned file was there, Task Scheduler was going to prevent me from re-creating the RACAgent scheduled task.

To alleviate THIS problem, I had to rename the RACAgent file to "RACAgent.sav" -- similar to what I did torepair System Restore -- and restart Task Scheduler. Now, without the orphaned RACAgent file in the way, I was able to re-create the RACAgent scheduled task.

As it turns out, modifying the TaskCache subkey in the registry can have somewhat detrimental effects on my system. It will delete thetask from the Task Scheduler , not the task file from the Tasksfolder , and this effect can prevent the re-creation of scheduled tasks in case you need them later.

But my question still remains -- who moved my tasks!?

Whereas in (I think) Windows 9x the Tasks folder was simply C:\Windows\Tasks, (I think) that has changed in Windows NT and later to C:\Windows\System32\Tasks. Boy... Just another part of the enigma that Windows can be!

Anyway, I would like to thank LGS for his fix for System Restore that helped me fix the RACAgent scheduled task as well.

Brandon Taylor

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Brandon Taylor

Who Moved My Tasks!?

Upon further review, I discovered that the Tasks folder I needed was not C:\Windows\Tasks, but C:\Windows\System32\Tasks. It seems that, when I had to break into the Registry to dump the subkey associated with the Task Scheduler (HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Schedule\TaskCache) to alleviate a problem with Task Scheduler, doing so deleted the RACAgent task from the Task Scheduler, but left behind an orphaned file (C:\Windows\System32\Tasks\Microsoft\Windows\RAC\RACAgent). As long as this orphaned file was there, Task Scheduler was going to prevent me from re-creating the RACAgent scheduled task.

To alleviate THIS problem, I had to rename the RACAgent file to "RACAgent.sav" -- similar to what I did torepair System Restore -- and restart Task Scheduler. Now, without the orphaned RACAgent file in the way, I was able to re-create the RACAgent scheduled task.

As it turns out, modifying the TaskCache subkey in the registry can have somewhat detrimental effects on my system. It will delete thetask from the Task Scheduler , not the task file from the Tasksfolder , and this effect can prevent the re-creation of scheduled tasks in case you need them later.

But my question still remains -- who moved my tasks!?

Whereas in (I think) Windows 9x the Tasks folder was simply C:\Windows\Tasks, (I think) that has changed in Windows NT and later to C:\Windows\System32\Tasks. Boy... Just another part of the enigma that Windows can be!

Anyway, I would like to thank LGS for his fix for System Restore that helped me fix the RACAgent scheduled task as well.

Brandon Taylor

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Brandon Taylor

Thanks!  This helped me solve a similar problem with a manually-created private task to run SyncToy that disappeared from Task Scheduler Library but reported "A task or folder with this name already exists" when I tried to recreated it.  I had to delete the C:\Windows\System32\Tasks\SyncToy file (having already deleted the relevant keys under HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Schedule\TaskCache in the registry which alone did not cure the problem). 

 

Incidentally, I have no idea why the task disappeared in the first place, but suspect it was during attempts to recover from a disaster with Windows Update running out of disk space.  Anyway, all back together now I hope.