cant install coldfusion

["theotrain" <webforumsuser@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

this may not really be a coldfusion question, but im in trouble!

 i was running the CF 8 developer edition on IIS until a few days ago.  when i 
tried to run CF Admin i realized the CF admin file no longer existed.  in fact 
the whole CFIDE folder didnt exist on my localhost.

 so i uninstalled coldfusion and downloaded the latest version from adobe. now 
i cant install it.  i get this error:

 "Windows error 216 occurred while loading the Java VM"

 i have the latest version of java installed.  i dont know whether this is 
really a java error or a coldfusion installer error.  it happens immediately 
after the exe extracts itself ("coldfusion-801-win64.exe").  no portion of the 
installation completes.  

 if i dont get CF up again im going to be royally boned.  any clues out there??