Hi lightspeed,
the only suggestion that I can give you is:
right mouse click on the set up program for the game, that is on your DVD or CD.
Click on the compatibility tab.
Click on the link to help you choose the settings.
Let the wizard tried to make the adjustments for you.
You will eventually get to a point where it states that you need to start the program to see if it's working.
Start the program by clicking on that link.
Your install Wizard box for the game should come up and you can start the process of installing the game.
Do not change any of the directory settings through that Wizard box as you are installing it.
If the game still does not install after that, more than likely it has something to do with a routine that is trying to break protocol.
Before Windows vista Microsoft was not too concerned with protection protocol, but now they are.
And some of the older programs use a dare I say virus to protect their software from hackers.
Even though this virus was never actually loaded onto your computer what it did was affect your DVD drive.
When that happened it forced the DVD drive to jump to a specific location on the DVD to continue reading a specific area to continue the download.
With Windows 7, this is a protocol violation so it prevents it from initializing the DVD to go from one specific location to another without authority.
Unfortunately you cannot give it authority to do this because it is hard written onto the DVD that has the game on it.
Your antivirus program does not recognize it as a virus because it never gets installed onto your computer it only affects the DVD drive.
I remember my dad talking about these kind of things back when he was working on the Commodore computer, and trying to make copies of games that is friends had.
So my dad was unable to make copies of the game, These types of drive manipulations have existed for a long time to prevent people from being able to pirate their software.
Sincerely, best wishes and I hope that you resolve your situation with the game, but I am afraid that if you cannot get the game to install there's no hope.
C load.
PS just more money to throw into the trash. Personally I think the people that charge you money for a product should be held responsible to make sure that it works for the life time that you own the product.
But there's no money and that so it will never happen. LOL.
PS PS if you cannot install the game after doing the instructions above, re-follow the instructions above except try forcing it to load directly on to your C drive.
Using the name of the game as the main directory (C:/area51) in which you will be installing the game, I remember I had an old game that I figured out that I was able to get it to install by forcing it to install on to the C Drive.
But I can tell you that even though I got it to install I never did get the game to work properly. Boo-hoo! LOL.
