In Case of Failure

As convenient and complete as the wizards are, suppose that during the installation, your TNSNAMES.ORA file was damaged. What happened was that you could easily add more services using theNet8 Configuration Assistant, and test them successfully, but you could never save the changes.

What you have to do in a case like that is either restore the TNSNAMES file from your backup, or totally deinstall Oracle 8 i or 9 i Client and then reinstall it. This takes a bit of time, but it is fairly straightforward. Insert the client CD, select Installation , then select Deinstall . Now follow the directions and mark all the boxes, click Deinstall , and the wizard will take over. However, the original directory you used for 8 i or 9 i might not be removed, so double-check , and if it's still there, delete it. Then just reinstall the client.

Warning

If there is a radical failure during the installation, such as the PC shutting down, a memory error, or something that causes the installation not to complete, you will be faced with a tedious task of carefully removing entries in the registry, as well as the folders on your D: or C: drive. For this I refer you to the Oracle installation guide for 9 i or 8 i .

I have run into this situation only when the client PC was simply not robust enough because of a slow processor. Oracle advises that you use at least a 266MHz processor, but I strongly advise you to use nothing less than a 600MHz processor or you will most likely have problems. Some laptops, however, run fine with a slower processor.