3

So my computer was recently rebuilt and all my settings were re-imaged to a new computer. This meant that most drivers were not re-installed. Right now I have a bunch of USER DSN that are invalid. I cannot remove or configure them. I get the following error when I try either: https://i.stack.imgur.com/IGJi0.jpg

Google tells me to go to regedit but nothing exists in the following folder HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\ODBC\ODBC.INI\ODBC Data Sources.

I tried just re-installing the the Posgres ODBC driver but no go. Ran data sources administrator GUI as an administrator and windows still won't let me remove them.

Jeff G
  • 33
  • 1
  • 1
  • 3

1 Answers1

8

Not all data sources are in that key, especially if you have a 64 bit machine. 64-bit ODBC explains where you can find 32/64 bit data sources in the registry.

 HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\ODBC\ODBC.INI
 HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Wow6432Node\ODBC\ODBC.INI
 HKEY_CURRENT_USER\SOFTWARE\ODBC\ODBC.INI

It also explains about registry redirection. The key you are looking is for system DSNs even on a 32 bit machine so you want to look in HKEY_CURRENT_USER.

bohica
  • 5,932
  • 3
  • 23
  • 28
  • I had a 32 bit system but the main problem was the one in current user. Thanks for that tidbit of info. I removed those and now they are all gone and I am good to go. – Jeff G Mar 05 '12 at 14:30
  • In my case a "technician" had managed to add a "Text Driver" data source even though it isn't installed. Thus it could neither be removed or added. Killing it from the HCU\ path worked for me, thanks. – Krista K Apr 01 '14 at 18:11
  • Note that just deleting the folder in ODBC.INI with the name of the connection is not enough. There is also a record in "ODBC Data Sources" that you have to remove as well. (Something I didn't realize and couldn't understand why it wasn't going away in my list) – VenerableAgents Jul 24 '14 at 16:40