Acrobat 7.1 update installation issues

Question

Having spent the best part of a whole day trying to install the latest Acrobat Professional version 7.1 update, I have finally found a solution which I hope may be of use to other sufferers of this problem.
My system is a dual HD setup with XP on drive C: and Vista on drive F: Acrobat Professional 7 is installed on the XP drive C: and not on the Vista drive.
All went well with the update on the C: drive until, halfway through the installation an error message popped up saying that it could not acces the folder F:\Windows\Winsxs\Policies.
This struck me as odd. Why would the programme be wanting to add information to a system folder on the F:(Vista) drive when the installation I am updating is on drive C:(XP) and I am booted up on drive C:
I duly checked the folder, F:\Windows\Winsxs and found no "Policies" folder within. Furthermore any and every attempt to gain access to that folder for the Acrobat updater failed. I went through all the Attrib commands from the command prompt, tried altering access permissions in safe mode and even booted into Vista to see if anything could be done. All of these actions drew a blank with the folder flatly denying access on all counts.
During all of this I was scouring the internet to find any similar cases and spotted one where someone had noticed that a "Policies" folder had been added to the Windows\Winsxs directory on a non-boot drive on their machine. Curiously this was after installing the Acrobat 7.1 update.
Finally I decided to take drastic action and disconnect the F: drive temporarily (luckily the boot.ini file is on the C: drive). I figured that if the programme couldn't see it, it would just get on and install properly on drive C: I am happy to say that my hunch worked and I was finally able to install the update.
My question for Adobe is, why did this happen? What possible reason could there be for the updater to require access to the other drive.
Had my dual-boot system been on a single HD my solution to the problem would not have been possible and I would still not be able to install the update.
I would welcome any comments from other forum members but especially from someone at Adobe Tech Support.

Answer 1

Geetesh. I have an answer which may work for you.
For whatever reason the 7.1 installer requires access to the Vista Windows folder in order to install a policies folder in the Winsxs directory. This folder is locked and cannot be written to which, in turn, gives the error.
As you say, you cannot remove your Vista drive like I did but there is another way around the problem. Access your Vista drive from XP and temporarily rename the Windows folder to something like Windows2. Then create a new folder on the Vista drive and call it Windows. Inside the new Windows folder create another one and call it Winsxs. Now run the 7.1 installer in XP and you should find that it installs without the error. Once you have it installed you can safely rename the new Windows folder you created to something else and change your renamed Windows2 folder back to Windows.
Hope this helps.