HyperSQL Database Engine

I am attempting to validate that the choise the user does, when selecting
the database output file, is valid.

So for

server.setDatabasePath(0, "a:/mydb.db");

hsqldb does indeed prints to stderr:

[Server@29428e]: [Thread[HSQLDB Server @29428e,6,main]]: Database
[index=0db=file:a:/mydb.db, alias=shiponline] did not open:
org.hsqldb.HsqlException: The database is already in use by another
process: org.hsqldb.persist.NIOLockFile@1f06edd4[file =A:\mydb.db.lck,
exists=false, locked=false, valid=false, fl =null]:
java.io.FileNotFoundException: A:\mydb.db.lck (The system cannot find the
path specified)
[Server@29428e]: [Thread[HSQLDB Server @29428e,6,main]]: Shutting down
because there are no open databases

However no RuntimeException is thrown, and I seem not to be able to detect
this condition and warn the user.