Unable to copy from disk when patching/installing EP after reinstall - RESOLVED

[raptureswild]

Hope the title is descriptive enough (I hate "PLEASE FIX THIS" titles that have no clue as to what the problem is).

I re-installed The Sims 2 (base game) yesterday.  It may be notable that I installed on a second drive (F:, not C:).  After install, I cannot install University.  It gets to the end of installation, tells me that it will now check that my existing installation is up to date, and then goes to patch.  During the patch, it asks me to put in Disk 4 of the base game install CD's.  I do that.  It then tells me it's "Unable to copy from disc" and promptly uninstalls everything.

So naturally I think, if the patch is the problem, I can patch before installing to avoid all this business.  So I try that - same error.  So I think, well OK, maybe my disk is damaged (it looks a little scratched, maybe?).  So I download an image of disk 4.  Same problem.  So there is a problem with the physical CD, and there is a problem with the virtual CD.  Any suggestions on how to fix this?  Do I have to install the game on my C: drive?  (I don't have enough space for the base game and all expansions; could I work around that, as well?)

Thanks in advance for any ideas about fixing this.  I have searched on Google and while I have found a ton of people with the same problem, the answer almost always is "your disc is bad" followed by pleas to borrow someone else's disk.  

Edit: Resolved.  I went ahead and reinstalled on my C: drive and the problems I've had appear to be resolved.  I am going to leave this up in the event that someone has the same problem - they will be able to search the text and find at least what worked for me.

[snabul]

SECUROM!!!

You got rid of it by reinstalling, but there are better ways to solve this.

Just look around for "securom" or "suckurom".

[Alex]

I'm assuming the patch is hard coded to install to the C:\ drive, instead of searching for whatever drive the game is actually installed on, therefore refusing to copy anything as it cannot find the game executable. I installed Ye Olde Sims (The Sims 1) today, and a patch for that threw up the same message funnily enough. Yet the bonus crap that was also on the disc installed perfectly fine.

[Pandaah]

^ This is wrong. The Sims 2/patch is not restricted to the C: drive.

[maxon]

Pandaah is right - I had both my installations of Sims (bought a new computer 18 months ago) on drives other than C without problems.  A manual installation of University might have got round this problem.