Crash dump analysis

Posted by Ryan Ries on Server Fault See other posts from Server Fault or by Ryan Ries
Published on 2012-10-03T23:31:50Z Indexed on 2012/10/04 3:40 UTC
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I hope this isn't a stupid question, and if it is, then I want to at least get it over with so I don't feel so dumb in the future.

Here we are, loading up a Windows crash dump with Windbg. Here are the first few lines of the debugger output:

0: kd> .dumpdebug
----- 64 bit Kernel Summary Dump Analysis
DUMP_HEADER64:
MajorVersion 0000000f
MinorVersion 00001db1
...

The MinorVersion I mostly understand. It's hexadecimal and it translates to 7601 in decimal. Windows admins would already be able to tell from that that this must be either a Win7 x64 machine or a 2k8 R2 machine with SP1. But isn't 7601 the build number? It's supposed to be Major.Minor.Build/Revision... right?

Also I don't understand the MajorVersion. It should be 6. This version of Windows is 6. But isn't 0000000f in hexadecimal 15 in decimal?

The full version string of this version of Windows, when you launch the Command Prompt for instance, is 6.1.7601. If 7601 is the MinorVersion, then what is 1 and what is 6? And why does the crash dump say 0F?

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