Windows SharePoint Services Search (SPSearch) Errors File Not Found / 'start' action failed

Disclaimer: Take all possible backups, Since you have decided to troubleshoot on your own we hold no responsibility if anything goes wrong.

Note: After every troubleshooting step run following command
stsadm -o spsearch -action fullcrawlstart
& monitor Eventviewer>Application log for Success or Failures related to Windows SharePoint Services Search Service

On Failures try next step.

1. Open a Command prompt
Browse to C:\Program Files\Common Files\Microsoft Shared\web server extensions\12\BIN

stsadm -o provisionservice -action stop -servicetype "Microsoft.SharePoint.Search.Administration.SPSearchService, Microsoft.SharePoint.Search, Version=12.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=71e9bce111e9429c" -servicename "SPSearch"stsadm -o provisionservice -action start -servicetype "Microsoft.SharePoint.Search.Administration.SPSearchService, Microsoft.SharePoint.Search, Version=12.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=71e9bce111e9429c" -servicename "SPSearch"

stsadm -o spsearch -action stop

From SQL Server Management Studio backup & remove Old WSS_Search databases

stsadm -o spsearch -action start -farmserviceaccount [Domain\user]-farmservicepassword [Password] -databaseserver [SQL Server\Instance] -databasename [New WSS_Search DatabaseName]
Note: Replace above parameters with proper values

2. Run following from command prompt Before Reboot
net stop sptimerv3
net stop spsearch
sc config sptimerv3 start= disabled
sc config spsearch start= disabled

Run following from command prompt After Reboot
sc config spsearch start= demand
sc config sptimerv3 start= auto
net start sptimerv3
net start spsearch

3. From Windows Explorer go to backup cache.ini file from following location
C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Application Data\ Microsoft\ SharePoint\ Config\

Change the contents of cache.ini to 1

From command promptnet stop spsearch net start spsearchstsadm -o execadmsvcjobs

4. psconfig -cmd secureresources
attrib -s %windir%\tasks.

Go to Properties of windows\tasks folder and add wss_wpg and wss_admin_wpg groups and give the full control permissions.

5. Repair MOSS from Add/Remove programs
Reboot server
Run PSCONFIG without changing any settings

NOTE: Do not perform following step if you want to use Network Service as SharePoint Service Account on SingleServer Installation with SQL Internal Engine

6. Central Admin>Operations>Servers in Farm
Note down the Configuration Database name

Run PSCONFIG Disconnect from Configuration Database

Run PSCONFIG Reconnect to same Configuration Database disconnected above.