entire folder missing after major upgrade

[Darain]

I just have a new major upgrade problem: one of the subfolder under the install root is missing entirely after upgraded. In the verbose log, there is no error but I notice the following potential problems:

[code]
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...
MSI (s) (1C:A4) [08:32:15:014]: Dir (source): Key: _A739338155CC46E3A8C92A045D26D607 , Object: C:\Documents and Settings\Darain\Local Settings\Application Data\Downloaded Installations\{8BE3E8A1-AA2A-4BBE-A236-A03722429789}\program files\ABC Player\moz\components\ , LongSubPath: program files\ABC Player\moz\components\ , ShortSubPath: PROGRA~1\\moz\COMPON~1\
MSI (s) (1C:A4) [08:32:15:014]: Dir (source): Key: _4697C39F0DD340559C94EE8826B2569E , Object: C:\Documents and Settings\Darain\Local Settings\Application Data\Downloaded Installations\{8BE3E8A1-AA2A-4BBE-A236-A03722429789}\program files\ABC Player\moz\chrome\ , LongSubPath: program files\ABC Player\moz\chrome\ , ShortSubPath: PROGRA~1\\moz\chrome\
MSI (s) (1C:A4) [08:32:15:014]: Dir (source): Key: _F11A88F450794231BC959B673B8C21BF , Object: C:\Documents and Settings\Darain\Local Settings\Application Data\Downloaded Installations\{8BE3E8A1-AA2A-4BBE-A236-A03722429789}\program files\ABC Player\Dependencies\ , LongSubPath: program files\ABC Player\Dependencies\ , ShortSubPath: PROGRA~1\\\
MSI (s) (1C:A4) [08:32:15:014]: Dir (source): Key: ALLUSERSPROFILE , Object: C:\Documents and Settings\Darain\Local Settings\Application Data\Downloaded Installations\{8BE3E8A1-AA2A-4BBE-A236-A03722429789}\All Users\ , LongSubPath: All Users\ , ShortSubPath: ALLUSE~1\
...
...
[/code]

1. On the first line of this extracted section, the LongSubPath shows

"program files\ABC Player\moz\components\"

while the ShortSubPath shows

"PROGRA~1\\moz\COMPON~1\"

. The second line has the same symptom. My question is, is this normal that the ShortSubPath would always drop the product name (folder) in the path if it has a space in-between? But the folder "program files" survives. (It doesn't seem to have any ill effects on my upgrade though.)

2. This is the real problem. On the third line, the ShortSubPath drops all the subpath names after "program files" and becomes

"PROGRA~1\\\"

. If following the rules on line one and two, the ShortSubPath should show

"PROGRA~1\\Dependencies\"

. This Dependencies folder is exactly the folder that go missing entirely after an upgrade.

Can anyone give me some hints on why this happens, and more importantly, how to fix it.
Many thanks.

[Darain]

Aah, I tried to create a smaller package to reproduce the problem, but could not. The new smaller set of files upgraded just fine. However, there are some interesting findings:

[code]
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MSI (c) (F0:0C) [09:17:38:222]: Dir (source): Key: _1A9D7370DBE644C9882A4B51D2E344CB , Object: C:\DOCUME~1\Darain\LOCALS~1\Temp\{E028F2EF-77B2-4EB8-BB7F-7326BD5087EA}\program files\ABC Player\moz\components\ , LongSubPath: program files\ABC Player\moz\components\ , ShortSubPath: PROGRA~1\ABCPLA~1\moz\\
MSI (c) (F0:0C) [09:17:38:222]: Dir (source): Key: _46DFE442173444B5B4E22B66B56DDAC6 , Object: C:\DOCUME~1\Darain\LOCALS~1\Temp\{E028F2EF-77B2-4EB8-BB7F-7326BD5087EA}\program files\ABC Player\moz\chrome\ , LongSubPath: program files\ABC Player\moz\chrome\ , ShortSubPath: PROGRA~1\ABCPLA~1\moz\chrome\
MSI (c) (F0:0C) [09:17:38:222]: Dir (source): Key: _659872FFB24247C6968FD3FBAF55B1BD , Object: C:\DOCUME~1\Darain\LOCALS~1\Temp\{E028F2EF-77B2-4EB8-BB7F-7326BD5087EA}\program files\ABC Player\Dependencies\ , LongSubPath: program files\ABC Player\Dependencies\ , ShortSubPath: PROGRA~1\ABCPLA~1\\
MSI (c) (F0:0C) [09:17:38:222]: Dir (source): Key: _73FE5D72CF674550850BDB7A25CCF271 , Object: C:\DOCUME~1\Darain\LOCALS~1\Temp\{E028F2EF-77B2-4EB8-BB7F-7326BD5087EA}\program files\ABC Player\ABC Player\ , LongSubPath: program files\ABC Player\ABC Player\ , ShortSubPath: PROGRA~1\ABCPLA~1\\
MSI (c) (F0:0C) [09:17:38:222]: Dir (source): Key: _300D551DCB954B3CA17AB6B741A4E4E1 , Object: C:\DOCUME~1\Darain\LOCALS~1\Temp\{E028F2EF-77B2-4EB8-BB7F-7326BD5087EA}\program files\ABC Player\ABC Player\javascript\ , LongSubPath: program files\ABC Player\ABC Player\javascript\ , ShortSubPath: PROGRA~1\ABCPLA~1\\\
...
[/code]

As shown in the log, the third entry, indicating the previously problematic 'Dependencies' folder is ok this time, but its 'ShortSubPath' becomes "PROGRA~1\ABCPLA~1\\" instead of "PROGRA~1\\\". Another finding is in the last entry. The ShortSubPath of it becomes "PROGRA~1\ABCPLA~1\\\". But this time everything is upgraded correctly. Apparently, that triple slashes \\\ may not be the cause of the problem.

So a new idea comes to me: if it is only the ShortSubPath causing the problem, is there a way in InstallShield IDE that I can turn off the support of Short Paths?

[Darain]

Umm, this is getting serious. I thought it could be some hidden strange project settings I made during all these development time so I recreated the whole project from scratch. But it's still happening. Really need someone's help.

[Darain]

Aah, I forgot to mention:
1. On minor upgrade scenario, files in the Dependencies folder is not upgraded. All other folders are renewed properly.
2. The two setups, upgrade from and upgrade to, can be installed properly on their owns. Nothing missing.

[Darain]

Finally, it turned out to be a problem with duplicated microsoft runtime dlls that a programmer put under that specific folder. (Sigh!)

Actual reason why the duplicate would make the upgrades went these ways is still unknown. It seems to relate to trying to register both as shared dlls. The main issue concerned me is that neither InstallShielld nor MSI issued any error message while a whole folder failed to be copied over. Anyway, that's it for now.

Thank everyone who have even tried to think about this problem.