"Error: invalid or missing target" Help!!!

[Henhen2]

I purchased M2TW and the Kingdoms expansion just over a year ago and they installed fine the first time but I uninstalled them to free up space on my hard drive. Now that I have plenty of hard drive space as I've moved my music, pictures and whatnot to a separate hard drive, I want to re-install them.
M2TW installs fine but every time I try to install Kingdoms it stops at a point and displays an error message along the lines of "Error: invalid or missing target C:\Program Files\SEGA\Medieval II Total War\packs\data_0.pack. Update cannot be continued."
This is the error message I received from my latest attempt to install. It occurred when trying to update from 1.2 to 1.3 but the error happens at different points during the install every time I try to re-install but always when updating from 1.0 to 1.2 or from 1.2 to 1.3 and always the Invalid or missing target error and it's always one of the .pack files.After the error message appears it aborts the installation and exits.
I cannot fathom why this is happening because the .pack files are there and I do not ever modify, move or in any way mess around with them, I just uninstall and re-install M2TW and try again to install Kingdoms. I've done this a few dozen times but every time the same thing. Plus, like I've said, IT INSTALLED FINE A YEAR AGO!

Please help me, it's making me lose my grip on reality.

[irishron]

Clean the disc real good and check scratches, food, dirt, fingerprints, etc.

[Henhen2]

I've cleaned the disks to within an inch of their lives.
I've received a very detailed step by step email from the people at SEGA saying I should do a manual uninstall then a desktop installation.
A desktop installation is the only thing I haven't tried yet so I'll give that a go and let you know how I get on.
Sounds like the disks are just screwed though.

[irishron]

Don't be too hasty. If the desktop install does not work, holler.

[Henhen2]

Nope same problem.

[irishron]

Post your dxdiag.

[Henhen2]

Here it is:

[irishron]

Vista = disable the UAC first.
Are you trying to install on C: or D: drive?

[Henhen2]

How does one disable the UAC?
C drive; I think I heard once that it's better to install programs on the same drive as the OS so I use C for games and the like and D for Files, music etc.

[Henhen2]

Sorry for being a fool. Disabled the UAC. Easy.
Anything alse I should do before re-installing?

[irishron]

Try it in C:\Games. This is where I put mine.

[Henhen2]

Okay I'll try that.
I'll let you know if it's successful.

[Henhen2]

Here's what's happening now; M2TW installs fine. Start the kingdoms installer and when it tried to patch to 1.2 I got the error message again but this time it was a Voice file so copied the Voice files from disk two of M2TW which solved that problem.
Start the kingdoms installer again and when it tries to patch to 1.3 I get this message:
"Error: invalid or missing target C:\Games\packs\data_2.pack
Some of the game files have been changed.
Try to apply this update again or reinstall the game."
I try to apply the update again and it gives me the old message of:
"Error: invalid or missing target C:\Games\packs\data_[number].pack.
Update cannot be continued."
Now every time I run the installer it alternates between the two error messages.

[irishron]

What other programs do you have installed including games and utilities htat you have installed between your previous install and this try?

[Henhen2]

Additional:
When I say 'Now every time I run the installer it alternates between the two error messages'.
I mean the the setup.exe from within the update3 folder on the kindoms disk.
Because when I run the kingdoms installer it doesn't try to patch the game anymore and just goes straight to installing the four kingdoms campaigns.

When I go to uninstall programs from control panel the programs I've installed since the original install of M2TW are:
Free file viewer, Game booster and CCleaner (as recommended here), Amazon mp3 downloader, Flash player 11 ActiveX and plugin, java 7 update 5 javafx 2.1.1, vlc media player and football manager 2010.
Also roller coaster tycoon 3 but I was playing that at the same time as M2TW and they were both fine.

Additional additional:
What I decided to do was copy the entire Update3 folder to my desktop and keep trying to run the setup.exe.
Every time it failed I re-copied it to the same place (selecting "copy and replace" when prompted) and ran it again.
After MANY times of doing this it succeeded and now I'm running the kingdoms installer again.
I'll let you know how that goes.

Praise be to Mars, Mercury and Flora!!!!!
It seems to have worked!!!!!
M2TW and all four Kingdoms start and seem to run stably.
When I go to settings it shows 1.04 in the top right for the kingdoms and 1.03 for M2TW, is that as it should be?
I'm pretty sure it is but I want to make sure before I try the (probably also soul destroying) task of installing patch 1.5.
MASSIVE thanks irishron; LEGEND!

[irishron]

It looks like it was just being stubborn. Yes, the version numbers are right. Don't forget the Kindoms 1.5 patch and be sure it's the correct one, language and Gold/nonGlod, or you'll be doing it all over, again.

And you're welcome.

[Henhen2]

Just as a quick conclusion, I have managed to install the 1.5 patch.
It was giving me a similar message when patching Britannia but after re-installing a few times it went smoothly.

[irishron]

Good to hear. Enjoy the game.

[-=Justinian=-]

Hey I have been having the same issues trying to get the game to patch to 1.05. But in game, at the options menu, the upper corner says 1.05. Does this mean it installed correct, but just doesn't think it did? Or should I continue to re install the patch until success?

[irishron]

If it says "1.05" you're good. It did install correct or it would say something else.