Anyone know how to update the base game manually? My computer acted up and has forced me to reinstall. Fortunately I have all my disks backed up and ready for a manual reinstall--which is necessary because my computer does not read my disks. It makes some noises like it ate something bad and spits them back out. I'm 100% positive that there's nothing actually wrong with my disks, not only because I've cleaned them, but also because they have installed fine on other, older computers.

So, yeah, manual installation it is, and I have all the stuff for it--my files, my game codes, etc. The problem I'm running into is when the patch or University tries to update the game. It needs disk 4 of the base game. But the computer absolutely doesn't recognize it and, again, just spits the disk out. The drive icon doesn't even show a disk in there. Is there a way I can make the installer look to the disk images saved on my hard drive to update the game?

I have been able to manually install in the past, but it's been years since I've had a problem that required a full uninstall & reinstall, and I don't remember what I did for this before. My notes are sorely lacking. Can anyone point me in the right direction? I never got the UC, either, so I'm really hoping there's a solution I'm forgetting. I don't know why I thought my physical disks would suffice, being that I still had all of them in good condition. I mean, silly me, expecting that the media you bought and kept safe years ago wouldn't just randomly stop working for no reason at all.

ETA: As I explained in a later post, I was able to use an external cd drive to complete the installation process.

Your CD/DVD drive seems to be borked - it happens with time. You can try to clean carefully the lens of the laser (isopropyl alcohol to use)* but if the tracking mechanisms is old it may be off the rails and playing with repair is not really worth your time, until you really (like: *really*) love to DIY. Just spend a few buck for a new one.

The game should be able to install/update straight from ISO images, CD/DVD emulators should handle any copy protections.

*all these disk-cleaners and such works only if there are minor dirt problems

If you use a emulator add four virtual drives and mount all four game disks at once. When I add the remaining EPs, I usually leave the fourth disk mounted so that it continues without issue.

Also, doesn't each EP include the patches?

Thanks for the replies. The thing is, the drive works, but not for these older games--TS2 & TS1 disks, mainly. I can and do use it for other games. And each EP does include the patch, or at least tries to update the game; the problem was that it would also ask for the fourth TS2 disk, which the drive wasn't reading and I couldn't figure out how to tell the computer to look in a certain folder for it.

In any case, I found a work around: My mom had an old external cd drive that I could plug into my computer's usb port and it reads everything just fine. I was able to complete the manual install by putting the fourth disk in there. I got everything installed again, from the base all the way up to the store edition. Now I just have to fiddle with my graphics and restore backups. Sigh. But at least it's working!

You know, ElaineNualla, I think you may be right about my drive, though. It's actually already a replacement. When I first got the computer years ago, I had the same problem, except it wouldn't read anything. Dell had to replace it and this current one, like I said, just doesn't like some disks. Next time I need to open up my desktop, I think I will replace it, or at least try to clean it. Thanks again for the help everyone!

the days when these parts were actually made properly are long gone if we're talking about not high profile devices which are quite rare and expensive. So: do not sob, nobody really expect that the CD/DVD/BRay (or such) drive will last longer than ~ 2 years. Less if actually used (and even less than less if not used at all, yeah).

These old disks, especially pressure-printed ones with idiotic old-type of serial validation (part of the ancient DRMs) sometimes are tricky for regular CD/DVD drives and always were; though I just suspect that this particular CD/DVD is just deregulated and simply unable to calibrate some tracks properly; in this case: old printed ones, because of theirs natural irregularity (part of the technology state from that time).