Im guessing no other games on this system have given you any trouble like this?

My first reaction would be to examine the CD-ROM and see if there are any scratches, blurs, or otherwise obscured areas of the disk. This could happen if the PC can't read the next file to copy.
I had to DOWNLOAD an ISO of Disk 1 just to get two movie files off of it that were corrupt/unreadable on my original CD-ROM. I then copied ALL FMVs to my hard drive and set the registry to point to that folder for movies. BAM, no more waiting for the CD-ROM to spin up for a cutscene.

Have you tried Googling already?

The only thing I could find that suggested someone had actually solved the problem was http://ffxiv.zam.com/forum.html?forum=25&mid= … 453805112132157 , which suggested a virus scanner problem. Other threads suggested corrupted media, or a bad, pirated download.

Thanks for your suggestions. I've tried googling too, which led me to try the reg cleaning and temp files clean and also to try in safe mode. I don't have a virus scanner as my machine isn't connected to the net.

I've also tried copying all files from the installation CD to the hard drive so I know that the CD / CD Drive aren't causing any issues.

I've run quite a lot of games with this build - I have run into a few CD drive issues, but as I've isolated that from the installation, then I know it's not the cd causing this problem.

Sometimes alterations to the "Upperfilters" and "Lowerfilters" registry keys can cause very strange problems with CD-ROM drives. Google should tell you more information about those.

Is "Auto-insert notification" enabled for the CD drive?
The best list of possible solutions I found was by "Sir_Elric" in this thread
http://heroescommunity.com/viewthread.php3?TID=4252

That post reminded me that I had several games that would not install in Windows 98 if "Auto-insert notification" for the drive (in Device Manager) was enabled. For some reason, the auto-insert would cause two installations to start at the same time and they would conflict, causing the installation to fail.

Are you using any real-mode CD-ROM drivers loaded in autoexec.bat/config.sys?

I believe the OP stated he has copy all files from cd to hdd, therfore it cannot be the cd causing the problem. I would perhaps try setting the *files* setting in config.sys to a higher level. I know for example Ultima 7 has an issue installing when *files* is set below a certain number.

Crols wrote:

I believe the OP stated he has copy all files from cd to hdd, therfore it cannot be the cd causing the problem.

I suppose – unless the files were somehow corrupted already.

I suppose the easiest way to establish if there's a problem there is just to use a checksum generator (I like WinMD5 to produce a checksum for each of the files on the installation CD, and then check them against someone else's files.

I would perhaps try setting the *files* setting in config.sys to a higher level. I know for example Ultima 7 has an issue installing when *files* is set below a certain number.

Ultima 7 is a DOS game. I can't imagine a Windows 95 application being impacted by the "files" setting in the config.sys.

Ultima 7 is a DOS game. I can't imagine a Windows 95 application being impacted by the "files" setting in the config.sys.

Forgive my ignorance, but I assumed Windows 95 might be affected by this setting, being run on a foundation of DOS. However since 95 is a 32 bit extender of sorts,
I guess it has it's own rules internally.

*A little research on my part concedes your point, windows 95 is a full OS with it's own file system.

I think I'm just going to do a fresh install of windows 95 and see if it fixes the problem - just ordered a big box version of Windows 95 upgrade, which I'm hoping will allow me to do a fresh install.

Perhaps you would like to use a checksum generator before you go to such extreme lengths?