CFMX 7 Verity Error: com. verity. organize. WorkSpaceException

When creating collections in ColdFusion MX 7 via the Administrator or code, you might encounter the following error:

Unable to create collection {collection name}.
An error occurred while performing an operation in the Search Engine library.
Error opening the collection: com.verity.organize.WorkSpaceException: Path not found [VdkError_PathNotFound]. (-104)
The Verity collection directory tree contains a subdirectory called ws to act as a work space during collection creation. When that directory starts to accumulate directories and files, Verity may report this WorkSpaceException.

The work space directory on a "Server Configuration" installation would be

$CFHOME\verity\Data\services\ColdFusionK2_indexserver1\ws\ whereas if Verity was installed in J2EE configuration on WebSphere on Windows for example the Verity work space directory would be {driveletter}\ColdFusionSearchService\Data\services\ColdFusionK2_indexserver1\ws\ where the Verity bits were laid down in the ColdFusionSearchService directory as a sub-installation routine.

To resolve the exception and create Verity collections again, stop the ColdFusion MX 7 Search Service, remove all the contents of the ws/ directory, then start the Search Service.