VMWare Player Error message: “The MSI failed”

One of our test beds was experiencing an issue upgrading the VMWare Player from version 3 to version 5.

Each time we tried to install version 5, the installer would try to uninstall version 3 and fail with the following message:

The MSI Failed” or The MSI Fails”

 

Trying to uninstall Version 3 through add/remove programs provided the same error.

The “Program Install and Uninstall troubleshooter” from Microsoft didn’t fix the issue either.

 

The solution was to launch the vmware install file from a command line with the following /z “action”=”install”

ie VMware-player-5.0.0-812388.exe /z “action”=”install”

 

This provided the fix and allowed VMWare Player to upgrade successfully.

If the above solution does not resolve your problem, please feel free to contact us on 014852222.

 

How to recover permanently deleted emails from an Outlook PST file

Emptying your deleted items folder can be a costly mistake for any one not paying attention to what they’re doing. We’ve seen it happen so many times before.

Thankfully, there are several methods of recovering permanently deleted items from the deleted items folder in Outlook.

Please see below for a step by step procedure on recovering permanently deleted items from your Outlook pst file.

  1. First, MAKE A BACKUP OF YOUR OUTLOOK PST FILE. This file is usually in your “C:\documents and settings\user\local settings\application data\outlook” folder. This step is critical.
  2. Make the following changes to the PST file you just backed up ONLY.
  3. Open a Hexeditor or download HexEdit from http://www.planitcomputing.ie/hexedit.exe
  4. Delete positions 7 through 13 with the space bar. Since you’re using hexadecimal numbering, this actually clears 13 characters in the following positions:  00007, 00008, 00009, 0000a, 0000b, 0000c, 0000d, 0000e, 0000f, 00010, 00011, 00012, 00013  (The editor displays the code “20” each time you clear a position with the space bar.)
  5. After clearing those positions in the file, save the edited PST file in the hex editor. Your PST file should now be corrupted.
  6. Run the Inbox Repair Tool, SCANPST.exe –  to recover the file.  ( On Windows XP, the file is located in C:\Program Files\Common Files\System\Mapi\1033 ).  For additional information on the Inbox Repair Tool, see Microsoft Knowledge Base article KB287497.
  7. After creating a backup (which can be skipped because naturally you followed these instructions and made a backup and are now working from it), the Inbox Repair Tool repairs the damage and recreates the PST.
  8. Open the new PST in Outlook. The Deleted Items folder should contain all removed messages, so anything you’ve emptied will be restored.

You may have problems with very large PST’s. Either the Hexeditor will take an inordinately long amount of time because it’s scanning the file or will simply hang – you will need patience to find out.

Lastly, this is not a guaranteed fix, just one potential method of retrieving permanently deleted emails from an Outlook PST file.

If the above solution does not recover your deleted emails from Outlook then please feel free to call us on 014852222 to book a FREE data recovery assessment.