I received this error the other day when trying to process a particular SSAS cube:

Error      18           File system error: The following file is corrupted: Physical file: file:///\\%3f\E:\SQL\OLAP\Data\Options”>\\?\E:\SQL\OLAP\Data\Options BI QA.0.db\Dim Date.0.dim\1.Year No.bstore. Logical file .                                0              0

I also could not process or browse any cubes at all, even cubes that had nothing to do with this cube.  All gave this same exact error with the same file name even if the cube I was trying to process used a different file name.

When I went to SSMS, connected to Analysis Services, and renamed the cube, then everything worked.  I then deleted the “Options BI QA” cube.

The reason for this error message is the cube file in the file system is corrupted.  You can’t fix the issue by just redeploying the cube.  When you try to deploy the cube, you will get the same error message and the deployment process will fail.

After I fixed this issue I did some research and found a forum post that had the same problem with a different solution:

1. Stop the Analysis Services service
2. Delete everything in the C:\Program Files\Microsoft SQL Server\MSSQL.2\OLAP\Data\%YOUR_PROJECTNAME% folder
3. Restart the Analysis Services service
4. Connect to the Analysis Service using SQL Server Management Studio
5. Delete the Analysis Service database which you got the error
6. Re-deploy the SSAS project

Either solution will work, with the solution I came up with an easier to do, but maybe might not work in ever case so it’s good to have another option.