GOW PC Install Error

[scar~face]

Well, i grabbed myself a copy of Gears of War for PC

i get it home and try to install it. It wants to install on my C Drive (as everything does) but my C drive is a crappy 40 gig ribbon cabled monster, and my D Drive is a SATA 300 gig beauty, so i try to install in on D.

it give me an error. "Error trying to create directory..."

so, just to try somthing, i go in and create the file it says it cant.

"Error trying to create directory..."

i try to put in multiple directories..

program files/mircosoft games/Gears of war
Gears of war
Microsoft games/Gears of war
Llama Party Time/Gears of war....

none of which work..always the same error

i try to install on C, and it works, but that takes me to 38 of 40 gig taken up that wont do, i say!

So i get the genius idea of calling microsoft tech help and get some middle eastern guy i can hardly understand, he runs my through SUPER basic things like making sure my account is an admin, making sure i have enough harddrive space..crap like that. I get no where with him, he says he'll call back tomorrow after he get his team of tech guy to think about it..whatever dude

so, i try just for kicks to install it on my dads computer on the D Drive (pretty much exact same set-up, just HHD, PSU, and video card are different) and guess what, it works!!! WTF

im completely boggled on this one.

[OvRiDe]

program files/mircosoft games/Gears of war
Gears of war
Microsoft games/Gears of war
Llama Party Time/Gears of war....


I know this might be a dumb question but you did put D: in front of those?
IE..
D:/program files/mircosoft games/Gears of war
D:/Gears of war
D:/Microsoft games/Gears of war
D:/Llama Party Time/Gears of war....

[Cannibal23]

I know this might be a dumb question but you did put D: in front of those?
IE..
D:/program files/mircosoft games/Gears of war
D:/Gears of war
D:/Microsoft games/Gears of war
D:/Llama Party Time/Gears of war....

haha overide i can tell your either a web guy or a linux user. it has to be backslash under windows or you should get an error saying invalid path. linux and web applications do use forward slash though.

anyways on to troubleshooting... weee

if you cant create a file or folder anywhere on that drive it means one of a few things

a) the d:\ drive is read only (just make sure d isnt acctually a cd or dvd rom.. i know its silly but we all make mistakes now and then)

b) you do not have enough permissions to write to the drive. although you are using an admin account it is posable to accidently prevent even a admin from writing to a folder or drive.

c) maybe some file system corruption. have you run sandisk lately?

[OvRiDe]

Heh.. Its true, I do use Linux a lot, but on my XP system, I can put the slashes either way and it will still take me to the right place. Linux is not so forgiving.

http://www.ovride.com/pictures/galleries/TBCS/cmd.JPG
Works in Explorer as well, but you are correct... the proper syntax should be D:\ :redface:

One thing I did notice is that every one of the directories that was tried, contain spaces in the directory name. It could be a quirk, so another suggestion would be to try and use a directory name that doesn't contain spaces or maybe put quotes around the names that contain spaces. Such as:
D:/"program files/mircosoft games/Gears of war"
also I would spell it microsoft and not mircosoft. ;)

[Needsleep]

is a crude work around but this may work....

install on c:

copy folder to where ever you like on d:

find the .exe for the game (in your copy on d:)and see if it still launches the game

if it does, send the shortcut to ur desktop/start bar

delete folder from c:

like i say, is crude and would make some people shudder but depends how much you wanna play the game and if it works, lotta apps just need somewhere to call home, they're not too fussy if you shift 'em about hehe

[.Maleficus.]

Another crude method; just make the folder where you want it before you start the install. Then, it doesn't have to make one, it's already there.

Also, be prepared for hella-buggy action when you play :dead:. It's fun, but crashes all the time for me (and it's not hardware related). Download the patch pronto.

[scar~face]

WELL....

maleficus- i have already tried to create the file first and then install in it, it still gives my the error, error trying to create directory, even though the directory is already there

needsleep- interesting idea, i shall try it, but i think when you install the game, it will look for it in C, even if i move it. as far as i know, there isnt a way of tell the program to look for its files in a different place after installation.

ovride- yes i do have the D:/ part in there, oh, and thanks for pointing ont my typo

cannibal23- system files are fine, i dont believe D is read only cuz ive install MANY games on it before, and if somehow i remove permission to write on it, 1) how did i do that? 2)How do i change it back?

[Needsleep]

if you try my idea all you have to do is note where the shortcut the auto-install points to and the executable it runs then find that .exe in the folder when you've moved it to d and send a shortcut of that to ur desktop, just like if you accidently delete a shortcut to something, find the .exe and re-map it

yes if you click the icons that point to the c: drive it wont find it but that's why i'd bother finding the .exe and sending it somewhere easy to see, so you dont get confuzzled between the one that works and one that doesnt (you can even go crazy and delete the ones that point to c: of it does work:))

that is all dependant on the application running from a location after you have moved the whole folder, and why i'd test it (running from d:) before i whacked a duff shortcut on my desktop

i'm struggling to find a way to type it simpler and probably making it sound more complicated the more i try to explain it.... hehe

[scar~face]

Needsleep, i could kiss you

your idea worked, its funny because when i asked the microsoft tech guy if just installing it then moving it would work he told me that it wouldnt.

well i just have one more thing to say

Needsleep +rep

Microsoft Tech Support -rep

[Omega]

the reason why ms tech would say that it wouldn't work is because of your registry

prepare for tons of errors if you try to uninstall it or whatever

now, if you know how to edit the registry, then do that, set the C:\progfiles\whatever\gow path for the game install path (used for patching, uninstalling, etc) to D:\whatever\gow

[.Maleficus.]

Expanding on Omega's idea:

If you want to go through with this, enter regedt32 in the Run dialog. Go to SOFTWARE > Microsoft > Microsoft Games > Gears of War. Then you'll see the SetupPath and EXEPath.