尝试从源安装数据库C：\\ Windows \\ Installer \\ *。msi中读取错误

Question

Would appreciate some help troubleshooting and solving the problem I currently have with installing an msi on a remote machine please. I am able to successfully build and install the same *.msi on my local machine(Windows 7, .NET 3.5). However, when I copy it over to a remote machine(Windows XP 2, .Net 3.5), I get the following error message.

Error Attempting to read from the source install database C:\\Windows\\Installer\\6497f.msi

This is meant to be a simple install which installs dlls and exe files to specified folder and not much else needed. How can I fix this problem please? Thanks in advance.

Answer 1

That error means the MSI (or some previous version with the same ProductCode) was installed on the machine but the cache was destroyed. I've seen this when people msizap (or use the poorly named FixIt tool from Microsoft) to try and yank an MSI off the machine. If msizap was used, the safest thing for testing purposes is to format the machine and start over.

If formatting the machine is not possible (or msizap was not used) then try recache/reinstalling the new MSI to try and get the source cache patched up. You can do this using the command-line:

msiexec /i new.msi /l*v log.txt

That will cause the new.msi to be cached where the old MSI should have been then repair the machine trying to get it into a consistent state.