HELP ! Error Message while starting SQLPLUS

[uparna]

Hi ,
I have been working on oracle 8.1.7 platform for quite some time now and everything was okay.
Unfortunately , there was a necessity for me to install forms 4.5 on the same machine few days ago. One of my friends tried to install forms 5 on the same machine , but aborted the operation while it asked us for the permission to change the home directory of Oracle.
Ever since this , i have not been able to login to the server on this machine , nor have i been able to run any of the oracle components (not even svrmgrl) . The tragedy is that this database has vital info which i cannot afford to lose.
Moreover , when i click on the universal home installer , and i proceed to uninstall Oracle , then the message "NO INSTALLED PRODUCTS FOUND" pops up. I am under trrible duress and am convinced that there is just a simple path variable or something. but am not able to lay my finger on it !
The error message is ORA-12538 which asks me to install some adapters..... but guides me only for the UNIX platform whereas i am working on Windows NT platform.

I can manage to tell only one word in this situation :

HELP ! :-0

Regards,
S. Jayaram Uparna .

If the need arises,you are welcome to mail me at oracguru@yahoo.com .

 

[lewisp]

Sounds like some registry variables have been changed/gone awol. If you are happy looking at the registry, check in HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\ORACLE and look at the ORACLE_HOME setting. Also make sure the other variables are pointing at the right directories.

Pete

 

[lweng]

Check listener.ora and if the entry like

(ADDRESS=
(COMMUNITY= NMP.world)
(PROTOCOL= NMP)
(SERVER= myhost)
(PIPE= ORAPIPE)
)

is before

(ADDRESS=
(PROTOCOL= TCP)
(Host= myhost)
(Port= 1521)
)

change the order of them and restart the listener.