Giveaway of the Day Forums

1. 

   cyraxote
   Member

   I've downloaded three times, different browsers, different zip software, virus software enabled/disabled, all the same result: "The setup files are corrupted. Please obtain a new copy of the program."

   I'm beginning to think that GOTD in general is a waste of time. I have no trouble installing software from ANY other source.

   Just for fun, I'm using Windows 7 Home Premium SP1 64-bit; Intel Core i5; 6 GB RAM; 609 GB free HD space. And yes, I read the FAQ. It does not address this problem, as far as I can see.

   Posted 11 years ago #
2. 

   StevieD
   Member

   Hiya cyraxote, I'm sorry to say that the problem is at your end somewhere, I also use Win 7 Home Premium 64 bit, have an older AMD processor with only 3GB RAM and a lot less HD space than you do, I downloaded the archive, decompressed it using WinZip to a folder named PavtubeDVDcreator and ran the setup.exe program from there. Installation was fine and registration using the code in the readme was instant.
   Just as a thought, as your error message seems to be from running the setup program, I take it you have decompressed the archive and so have the readme with the reg code.... have you tried downloading from the suppliers site directly?

   Posted 11 years ago #
3. 

   cyraxote
   Member

   I DL'd the file from the developer's site and it works fine. My PC just seems to not like GOTD for some reason.

   The funny thing is that my PC is pretty much vanilla. I wiped it and reinstalled everything at the end of October.

   Posted 11 years ago #
4. 

   mikiem2
   Moderator

   I DL'd the file from the developer's site and it works fine.

   While not a cure for any GOTD problems on your PC, did you try the key in readme.txt ? That might at least get you today's offer, & worse case it doesn't work, you've already got it installed so nothing to lose. I didn't see the separate download so I didn't try & can't tell you if it worked or not.

   In another post I'm putting down the few things that have occurred to me just in general regarding problems with GOTD's setup. Much of it wouldn't apply to a stock i5 PC running win7 HP, which should as Stevie notes not have any hint of problems with GOTD.

   It wouldn't be fun, but maybe you'd want to try running Process Monitor [Sysinternals at microsoft.com] & saving the log up to the point where the GOTD setup fails. Process Monitor lists most everything going on, which is an awful lot of data to sort through, & why the caution on it being the opposite of fun, but it can often pinpoint where something happens or breaks. I think you'd want to start with the entry to display the error message & work backwards. It can also sometimes point out malware, which could conceivably be involved -- more sophisticated malware [don't want to use the word "Better"] has anti-virus behavior to prevent other, more detectable malware that would cause you to run deeper AV scans once alarms went off... the GOTD setup's process of hiding files & file contents is just the sort of thing malware does, so malware with an AV component could be reacting with a false positive the same way some legitimate security apps do.

   Process Explorer [also from Sysinternals] can show you a lot of data too -- just not as much & not as in depth. The hard part there would be catching whatever's happening in the act... if something's deleting a file(s) for example it'll only show up briefly when & while it's doing its thing. But since it's portable & you're not wading through some log, giving Process Explorer a try is pretty painless -- it might give you a clue, but if you don't expect much & it turns out you were right, you haven't lost a big part of your life either.

   Posted 11 years ago #
5. 

   Sheepskate
   Member

   I sometimes have had to rerun setup.exe three times before it would work. No re-download. No re-unpack. Just re-running the unpacked file(s).

   Posted 11 years ago #
6. 

   ChrisS
   Administrator

   Cyraxote, nobody here can help you. There's clearly something about your particular hardware/software mix that the installer doesn't like. However, if you want to spend the time to resolve the problem then I suggest the following:

   Backup your existing installation to an external drive.
   Create a second partition, about 250 GB, on your hard drive.
   Backup your existing installation to the second partition AND to an external source (or second physical drive).
   Go to "Installed Updates" and make a list of all the MS updates. Download those updates to your new partition and download SP1 if your re-installation disk isn't SP1.
   Download any special drivers that you'll need.
   Go to "Programs and Features" and make a list of all the installed programs. At a minimum, download the anti-virus and firewall programs you're using to the second partition.

   Reinstall the OS on your primary partition. Turn off Automatic Updates and try GOTD, see if it will install. If yes, install SP1 if you're not already on SP1 and retry GOTD. If that works, install your firewall and anti-virus, if different from what was installed, and retry. Install the remaining updates, testing GOTD after each (or do blocks of 5-10). Keep track of what you install and uninstall individually if GOTD won't install. If all the updates work then load your programs with the same process.

   You're now saying "that could take days!". Yep, it's a long and tedious process that only you can do. Somewhere along the way you installed something that's causing the problem and only you can isolate the issue. You'll have to decide if it's worth the effort.

   Note: you can also work backwards uninstalling programs and updates but there's no guarantee that they'll fully uninstall.

   BTW, Win7 has a perfectly good backup utility that you can use. Images saved to your second partition aren't really backups, since they'd die if your hard drive died, but they are wonderful "go back" machines. They're great for those "oops, I really shouldn't have done that" moments. Since you appear to be in the habit of frequently installing new stuff you should look into ways to easily and painlessly "turn back the clock". And you've got all that free space...

   Posted 11 years ago #

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