Is there a way to edit the System Database Directory for DB2 to remove a database?

We have a case where we want to try to get rid of a database. The database still exists on disk and when we catalog it, it re-appears in the Database Manager. But when we try to do a DROP on it, it complains that it cannot find the alias. If we do uncatalog it and try to re-create it, it complains that the database name or alias already exists. So, we are stuck where we can't drop it and we can't recreate it.

I believe the SQLDBDIR file is the System Database used by DB2. Is there a way to edit this safely to get the entry out of there? Or is there another file we could edit, or a command we could run (outside of the standard DROP/CATALOG/UNCATALOG commands) that would get us in the clear?

Any help here would be great as we've been coming across this one more and more with our installed apps. (It arises from disk errors on laptops and we go to try to reinstall the database on a different section of disk.)

So far how we have gotten around this: We have uncatalogued the database. Then we rename the node locally (ie, C:\DB2, the default in the windows version). Then we need to uncatalogue the node. Then we can rebuild our databases with no problems.

StackExchange Database Administrators Q#2610, answer score: 3