Games won't install, says corrupt files

Hello all. I've chosen this forum in hopes some of you might know how I can solve my problem. I've just installed and activated a clean install of Vista Home Premium 32bit on my machine. It installed just fine. This is my first use of Vista as I've had XP until now.

I held off on getting Vista but my sister gave me her old computer so I figured if it's free, I'll take advantage of DirectX 10 as I'm a PC gamer.

So the first thing I did was download and install SP1 and SP2. They installed just fine. After installing all my drivers I needed, I then threw in my disk for S.T.A.L.K.E.R.-Clear Sky (a DX10 game). I ran the auto run and clicked install. Less than a second after that, an error message came up saying "The setup files are corrupted. Please obtain a new copy of the program." After getting super pissed and swearing up a storm, I right clicked my DVD drive and explored it. The relevant install files were setup.exe, setup-1.bin, setup-2.bin, and setup-3.bin. So I thought there might be a problem with vista working with .bin files so I went to windows update and installed all of the updates, minus ones I knew I didn't need and ones concerning security. I even turned off Windows Defender but to no avail.

Google found many people who get the same error message but on files they've downloaded. These files are on a disk and I know for a fact the disk is good. So I tried various other games and they started the install process just fine, accept for one. When I checked the contents, it, too, had it's install files in .bin format.

Can anybody tell me if I'm doing something wrong? Does anybody know how I can get this game installed? Thanks a lot in advance.

Did you try running as an administrator? Also when you explore the disk right click on the setup.exe and run it in Compatibility Mode for XP Service Pack 2. These may help for your problems.

Thanks a bunch for your quick reply. I did in fact try right clicking and running it as administrator, but that didn't help. However, I didn't think about running in compatibility mode. I'm going to try that in a few min when I get home and see if it works. Thanks!

EDIT:Wow it actually initiated the install! SUCCESS! However, the installer gathers information about the computer and displays it in green to show it meets requirements. It shows the OS as XP so my concern is will it not run with DX10 since it thinks it's installing on winXP?

I couldnt tell you but i would at least be happy that it plays. It should be playing in DX10 if your graphics card supports it. Its good to hear that it installed for your in compatibly mode.

Hello InspectorExacto,
Install the game, you can then change it back to Vista in the compatibility mode after.
Can you list your system specs, we will then be able to tell you if your PC will run the game.
Thanks.

Thanks a bunch for the replies. I know my system will be able to play the game as I've played it when I had XP. For some reason though, I'm leaning towards lack of power, it would crash when ever I turned on the enhanced full dynamic lighting when I ran it in XP. Might be a DirectX issue or just a cooky XP issue. So I installed the S.T.A.L.K.E.R. - Call of Pripyat benchmark which runs on an updated game engine from the one I'm playing, and that didn't crash with enhanced lighting on Vista. I'm filling in the specs section on my signature in the forum so you'll be able to see them.

If what you said is that it is working for you that is great to hear. Good luck and hope Vista works great on the game!

Well, this is totally crazy. So last night I did the compatibility of XP and it initiated the install. I didn't have time to actually install the game though. So now today, I tried it again and it came up with the same error message! AHH! I noticed in the requirements it says Vista(SP1). Do you think installing SP2 actually made it not compatible?

That has me stumpted since it worked the first time. I wish I had more suggestions other than to keep trying until you get it to work. I hope someone else has any ideas because im fresh out. Sorry bout that.

Oh well, not your fault. If I can't get this fixed soon, I'm just going to make a new partition and install XP on it just to play this game. Thats how much it's been on my mind lately.

If you have a processor that can do a virtualized environment, install windows Virtual PC from microsoft's website for free. make it virtualize like 15 GB and install XP on that drive. Test to see if it installs it on it, dont even need to play it. That might not give you the best results but saves the problem of dual booting the pc and having to reinstall the vista bootloader after doing so. Just a suggestion but I am sure that it will work eventually.

Thanks for that advice. How do I know if my hardware supports virtual PC? I have my specs in the forum now for you to see.

Well, this problem never ceases to amaze me. So I uninstalled SP2 and tried to install. It actually initiated it without having to be in compatibility mode.:D After asking me all the usual stuff about where and icons, it started the process and instantly spit out an error: An error occured while trying to copy a file. The source file is corrupted.

Only fix for that is to contact the cmpany that made the cd/dvd and tell them the error message you get. They should send you a new one.

Try this.
Create a new folder on your Desktop.
Copy all the files from the DVD/CD into that and install from there.
If the disk is good, then it will copy all the files without any issues.

Well I copied the files over to my HDD and they copied without any problems. I even ran a checkdisk sort of program I got from the microsoft help pages (something to do with Xcopy in command prompt) and that went OK too. However, when I try to run the install from the HDD files it gives the original setup files corrupted message. I am totally stumped. I guess I'll make an XP partition and run the game from there. At least I have Flight Simulator X for some DX10 eye candy...