Spatial Analyst Tools not working with GDB Rasters

Question

I have a class that is working with Rasters stored in a Geodatabase.  Somewhat randomly, many tools (even basic raster calculator expressions) are failing (Background Processing Error screen appears) when the inputs are Geodatabase rasters, but when we use equivalent rasters that are stored in a folder, there are no problems at all.
Has anyone else experienced issues like these?
ArcGIS 10.0 SP4, Windows7.

Thanks. 
Heath

TimothyHales · Answer

Hi Heath,

Are the FGDB rasters stored on a network or locally?  As Curtis mentioned, have you tried running the tools with Background Processing disabled?  I would also suggest looking into installing service pack 5 for ArcGIS 10.0.  If you could provide more information on the tools causing the errors and the specific messages then that would be helpful.

Thanks,
Timothy

curtvprice · Answer

I have a class that is working with Rasters stored in a Geodatabase.  Somewhat randomly, many tools (even basic raster calculator expressions) are failing (Background Processing Error screen appears) when the inputs are Geodatabase rasters, but when we use equivalent rasters that are stored in a folder, there are no problems at all.
Has anyone else experienced issues like these?
ArcGIS 10.0 SP4, Windows7.

Thanks. 
Heath

* You may get some helpful error messages in the results tab (that's where they are written when you use background processing).
* I recommend turning off background processing for students so they can see what's going on and have easy up-front access to error messages.
* Are you using file geodatabase or personal geodatabase? Personal geodatabase (.mdb) should be avoided if possible.