ERROR 999998: Unexpected Error

Question

I’m new with Arc 10, and I'm struggling alot. When using Geoprocessing I’m getting the same error or message again and again. "ERROR 999998: Unexpected Error"

I have checked all the settings I can think off. Any help or recommendation will be greatly appreciated.

Answer 1

I copy/pasted "ERROR 999998: Unexpected Error" into the search box of support.esri.com and found an Online Help entry describing it.

Whether you contact your local technical support, or seek assistance from a forum like this, my recommendation is to provide the details that @artwork21 suggests (i.e. what tool you are using, data type, service pack installed, etc) at the outset, so that anyone trying to help has a better chance of understanding and reproducing what you are experiencing.

Answer 2

Change the processing to foreground instead o background. You can control whether tools execute in the foreground or background by clicking Geoprocessing > Geoprocessing Options on the Standard toolbar.

The Background processing panel is where you control whether a tool executes in foreground or background mode.

If Enable is checked, tools execute in the background, and you can continue working with ArcMap (or other ArcGIS applications, such as ArcGlobe) while the tool executes. You'll see a progress bar at the bottom of your document displaying the name of the currently executing tool. When the tool finishes executing, a pop-up notification appears on the system tray. You can control how long the notification message appears by moving the Notification slider or disable the message by moving to the far left.
If Enable is not checked, tools execute in the foreground. When a tool is executing in foreground mode, you must wait until the tools stop executing before you can continue with other work.