can't start neo4j service after moving directo

Question

I have a windows 7 x64 machine. I installed neo4j which went very smoothly. I then managed to install neo4django and neo4j-embedded and that was fine too.

However I decided to change the directory it was in, so I stopped the neo4j service in powershell and moved it to a different spot. Since then I haven't been able to restart the service, though if I run the console it starts neo4j in a java.exe window (I think) and thus it works (localhost:7474 accessible, able to run the neo4j-embedded example script, etc) until I close that java.exe window.

Here is the output I got in PowerShell:

PS G:\dev files\neo4j\bin> .\neo4j start
[SC] StartService FAILED 1053:

The service did not respond to the start or control request in a timely fashion.

PS G:\dev files\neo4j\bin> .\neo4j console
25/06/13 9:36:57 PM org.neo4j.server.AbstractNeoServer INFO: Setting startup timeout to: 120000ms based on -1
Detected incorrectly shut down database, performing recovery..
25/06/13 9:36:59 PM org.neo4j.server.database.Database INFO: Loaded neo4j tuning properties from conf/neo4j.properties
25/06/13 9:37:01 PM org.neo4j.server.database.Database INFO: Successfully started database
25/06/13 9:37:02 PM org.neo4j.server.AbstractNeoServer INFO: Starting Neo Server on port [7474] with [80] threads available
25/06/13 9:37:02 PM org.neo4j.server.AbstractNeoServer INFO: Enabling HTTPS on port [7473]
25/06/13 9:37:03 PM org.neo4j.server.modules.DiscoveryModule INFO: Mounted discovery module at [/]
25/06/13 9:37:03 PM org.neo4j.server.modules.RESTApiModule INFO: Mounted REST API at [/db/data/]
25/06/13 9:37:03 PM org.neo4j.server.modules.ManagementApiModule INFO: Mounted management API at [/db/manage/]
25/06/13 9:37:03 PM org.neo4j.server.modules.WebAdminModule INFO: Mounted webadmin at [/webadmin]
21:37:03.260 [main] INFO  org.mortbay.log - Logging to Logger[org.mortbay.log] via org.mortbay.log.Slf4jLog
25/06/13 9:37:03 PM org.neo4j.server.web.Jetty6WebServer INFO: Mounting static content at [/webadmin] from [webadmin-html]
21:37:03.366 [main] INFO  org.mortbay.log - jetty-6.1.25
21:37:03.548 [main] INFO  org.mortbay.log - NO JSP Support for /webadmin, did not find org.apache.jasper.servlet.JspServlet
21:37:06.088 [main] INFO  org.mortbay.log - Started SelectChannelConnector@localhost:7474

I'd be most appreciative of your help. Cheers.

Answer 1

When you create a service in Windows you typically bind a location for the executable that the operating system can find. Because you moved the directory your Neo4J service is no longer valid. What you must do is delete the old service, recreate the service with the new directory, and then launch it.

Code to get and delete service in PowerShell:

$service = Get-WmiObject -Class Win32_Service -Filter "Name='servicename'"
$service.delete()

taken from here