Ms Office Problem

[shiprek]

Last year I upgraded my Gateway PC hard drive to 80Mb. I transferred the data on the old drive to the new using the manufacturer’s (Western Digital) drive to drive imaging utility. All worked well except MS Office 2000 SR1. Whenever I open excel or word the installer box pops up telling me that the feature I am trying to use is on a CD or removable disk and to install the MS Office CD. On inserting the disk the installer box opens and an error message comes up that the installation package is not available.

If I close the error messages as they appear on opening either word or excel, the application opens as normal but the office assistant is missing. I have put up with this way of opening word and excel for months now but I would really like to fix the problem. Powerpoint and Access open without difficulty.

I have tried to uninstall MS Office but was unable. On trying uninstall, the Installer box opens with the same message as above (insert MS Office CD).

I think the only way to uninstall now is to delete the application from the program folder and delete registry entries. I am not sure what registry entries need to be deleted. Can anyone help?

[SilentlyScreaming]

Since the new hard drive (80 Gb I'm assuming ;>), perhaps the CD ROM drive letter is different maybe?
Try re-installing from the CD, without attempting another un-install, and choose the repair option if offered...

If all else fails, try running a registry scanner over your system, then re-installing office.

[mikeddavies]

I had this happen to me - I am using Widows XP. Used Windows Install Cleanup (part of XP) to remove Office - only removes registry entries, and then reinstalled from the Office XP CD - very quick and it restores all the settings.

Hope this helps.
MikeD

[shiprek]

SilentlyScreaming


80GB is correct. CD ROM drive letter is the same. I have tried reinstalling without doing uninstall but the first screen to come up is the windows installer message box with the message:

" This patch could not be opened. Verify that the patch package exists and that you can access it, or contact the applications vendor to verify that this a valid Windows Installer patch package."

I scanned the registry prior to trying reinstall. Firewall, anti-virus and popup blocker seem to keep nasties out.

MikeD

This might be the answer. I will try this method in the next few days.

[ORAC]

MD is correct, you have to use the uninstaller, see MS help and Support here (http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;295823&Product=offxp)

[shiprek]

MikeD SilentlyS and ORAC,

Problem solved, Office now working perfectly. There was one small glitch in the process which I was able fix easily.

After running Windows Install Cleanup and then installing Office, both Word and Excel ran through a "settings" sequence when opened even after a re-boot. I then deleted all the Office program files except MSOHEV.dll. Access was denied to this file because "it may be in use or is read only".

I then re-ran Windows Install Cleanup and reinstalled Office. All working properly now.

Thanks for your help

Shiprek