Question : Backup Exec 12 - can't install any updates - gives error 1324 "The path Program Files contains an invalid character"

Like my subject says.  Windows SBS 2003, running Backup Exec 10 and SEP 11.  I had to reinstall Backup Exec about a month ago to fix some issues where it wouldn't do a backup-to-disk (Terastation).  The backup-to-disk is now working fine, but I can't get any of the service packs or hotfixes to install.  I've tried installing them manually, through LiveUpdate, and with the Backup Exec services stopped.  Each time, I get the same error 1324 "The path Program Files contains an invalid character".  Have reviewed various logs, including the "hidden" Symantec one, with no success.  I've deleted the contents of the Live Updates\Downloads directory, forced it to redownload the updates, and still no luck.

I've manually skimmed through the registry searching for phrases like "Program Files" and "BackupExec", but did not spot anything wrong.  I've run CCleaner to clean the registry, but it did not find anything related to Backup Exec.

All of the updates (various hotfixes, SP4, etc.) were installed in the past, and really about the only things that've changed in the past month were upgrading from Symantec 10 to 11, and then having to reinstall Backup Exec.  I have no idea where it's looking, or what's wrong with the installer, that it keeps thinking "Program Files" contains an invalid character.

Thoughts?

Answer : Backup Exec 12 - can't install any updates - gives error 1324 "The path Program Files contains an invalid character"

And it works!  But ultimately, I had to do what I least wanted to do: uninstall SEP, then I tried a repair install of BE, but it kept trying to write to the CD, so I tried to repair install after copying the contents of the CD to a flash drive, but again - it kept trying to write to the damn CD drive (even when running repair-install off the flash drive) , so I uninstalled everything, reinstalled Backup Exec, ran all the Live Updates, then reinstalled SEP.  It only took 5 hours of wasted time, but it's now working like it should.

I don't know what else I could've done.  Obviously that "Program Files" path error, and the fact that it kept trying to write to the CD drive during the repair-install were related, but nowhere did it give me an option to change that!  And I went through every key in the registry that had E:\ in them (my CD drive), but could find nothing amiss.  Perhaps the one other thing to try might've been assigning that flash drive as E:\, but at that point I figured it was totally FUBAR'd, anyway, and was best to just reinstall from scratch, along with the SQL Express 2K5 install, and all the patches, and hotfixes, and security updates, blah blah blah.

Yay, time for bed.