Large files, corruption, and Installshield X
Published 11.22.2005 by ~mattg
One of my testing tasks at work has been to figure out why one of our library files (300 MB uncompressed Access DB), when compressed into an Installshield cabinet file, does not install properly on all systems. It keeps coming up with a corrupt file error. Now, this would not be that big of a deal except for the fact that, when compressed, the file is all of 10 MB, so the disc savings are tremendous.
The problem was isolated to a few of our machines running Windows 2K server, so I grabbed a VM profile of Win2K server and went to work. The profile was up to date with the latest MS updates. I started it up, tried to install the compressed version, and it worked. So now I’m thoroughly confused. So I grabbed an older profile (Service Pack 3, IE 5, Windows Installer 2) and tried, and what do you know, it didn’t work.
So I went through the process of upgrading the profile… and the following didn’t work:
- Upgrading to SP4
- Upgrading to Windows Installer 3.1
- Upgrade to IE6 SP1
So after that, I looked at the profile that worked, and read all the hotfixes that have been installed. I started with KB891861, which is the first “Update Rollup” for Windows 2K SP4. I installed the rollup, and wouldn’t you know, it worked like a charm. Being that there are 50+ updates in this rollup, and none of them specifically mention Windows Installer upgrades, I took it at face value.
So, as a summary: If you are having trouble with Installshield-created cab files not installing on certain systems, make sure your windows installation is up-to-date, or at least to KB891861.
Filed under Windows
