Java Development Tools

Hi

First of apologies if this is the incorrect location to post - I couldn't find a dedicated forum!!

My problem is this......

I have followed Oracle's guidelines and created a silent installation of the full Dev Suite 10g (9.0.4) and have used this many times successfully to install to fully patched Windows XP Pro workstations.

Periodically the installation fails and only partially completes....no problem I naively thought - reinstall.

Initially I tried re-installing over the top of the partial install - but this always fails with the error "You have specified a non-empty directory to install this product...etc"

Oracle's recommended method is to uninstall and then reinstall - except the installer doesn't think anything is installed.

The obvious thing was then to delete all folders and files pertaining to Dev Suite....this also failed with the same message!!

I extended my deletion to temp folders, windows\prefetch and the registry......still fails!!

Frustratingly the java installer doesn't have the force reinstall switch that the windows installer has....gggrrrr...

So I had the mad idea of watching a manual install......this generated the non-empty folder error......so I deleted the folders and hey bisto!! Then I started getting these errors "The value of the environment variable path is more than 1023 characters. This value cannot be set."

I even tried creating a response file against a damaged install.....failed with both of the above errors.

Now I am stuck....if only Oracle used a decent windows installer!!

I did think to check the installation on a virgin build workstation - success....

I really hope someone can help me with this as it's driving me mad!!

Please help

Thanks in advance