Both auto and manual install attempted without internet, antivirus or success. Same problems as before - freezes at second disk 23% on auto, and almost all the way through disk 4 on manual, claiming to be unable to "copy compressed" because of an "invalid MS-DOS function."

Thanks for replying though. Any other thoughts, anyone?

So I have returned to the house where I play the Sims and am still trying to make the installation work.

I have tried the manual install again and no joy, was unable to "copy compressed" most of the way through disk 4, same as last time. So my latest attempt - on the advice of a friend - is to try and make a disk image of disk 4 and then burn that to a CDR and then copy and paste the files off the CDR instead of the original CD. So I install ImgBurn and lo and behold, after 20 attempts at this one error section (78%), it gives up and tells me:


The CD that is calling all these problems iis pretty immaculate, and it'd be a real bugger to have to buy a whole new box for just this one piddling bloody bit of disk 4. Is there any way of getting this ruddy little piece of data from anywhere else? If anyone has any ideas, it would be really great if you could advise me on what, if anything, I can do.

I tried to install Open For Business, and it destroyed the game, as, I learn, is not unusual. So I uninstalled everything, hoping that, upon reinstall, things would be de-destroyed -- but on 23%, after I insert the second disk, the install freezes. Does anyone have any suggestions?

EDIT: I apologise if I haven't included sufficient information. I'll try to reply promptly to any requests for further details.

EDIT: I can haz Goolgol plz: here has a fix for the exact problem described above, involving a manual install (making a file named 'Disk Images' containing four files ('Disk 1' - 'Disk 4') and manually c&ping from each CD, but I still, on the fourth CD which appears to have lots of compressed files in, get the error message "cannot copy compressed: invalid ms-dos function," which Google is not so helpful with. The CD looks relatively unscathed, but it has a ripe vintage (dating back to when the game first came out). Should I give the CD up for dead, or could the problem possibly be blamed on something else? If the former, does anyone know of somewhere good to make a little pirate, just for the last little handful of files?