Baphomet

Use Windows Explorer and move the folder or folders to where they need to be. You should be able to simply "click and drag" the folders from one location to the other. Of course you'll download Zip Genius and end your self-imposed suffering as soon as possible, right?

These people need to be hunted down like wild, rabid animals... and shot... for the good of all humanity.

Okay, honestly, I'm stumped. The ONLY other thing I can come up with to try, would be set your game resolution low, put all your options down to the minumum (no acceleration on your sound, reduce the AI, view distance, etc), shut off the sound, etc. In short, do everything you can to minimize the processing load on your machine. See if THAT helps, if it does, I would say that it indicates that something, somewhere - hardware-wise - is being stressed to the point of crashing your game.

Well, it was a stretch, I know, and the only reason I suggested it is that I've had problems with MY SBLive soundcard crashing my system, and I've heard the same from a couple other people as well. I swear once I pulled mine, my whole system got more stable. I'm now running on-board sound, but I don't mind... it was a good trade. As for your problem, I'm not sure what to tell you. That's a real stumper. ((thinking)) A couple questions: Is your dad's and/or brother's system running SD RAM (133) as well? Have you tried shutting down all your "backround" applications that Windows loads at startup? I'm rapidly running out of ideas here...

I'm tempted to offer a truly bizarre suggestion since it appears that your system is plenty enough machine to run MW. I know this might sound odd... but here goes. Un-install that Soundblaster audio card. That's right... use the Add/Remove Hardware icon in "My Computer" and un-install that bad boy. Then pull it out, reboot and fire up MW. I know, I know... what does a sound card have to do with it... try it. If it doesn't help, just plug the card back in. Reinstalling with WinXP should be a piece of cake, and I will grant you FULL Flaming Rights.

I agree with you... I used Power Archiver for a long time and it is an awesome utility. I plug Zip Genius here religiously because it's free for downloading, but if I was actually going to shell out dinero for an archive utility, PA would be my first choice.

Personally I found the GUI for Zip Genius rather intuitive... The extract button you were looking for is the one labeled "Extract" for instance. Or you could choose to "Extract Files" from the left side-panel. :P Ah well, I guess that's why there are so many flavors of ice cream out there, so everyone can find just what they're looking for. vive la difference!

That's a problem I've not encountered. Sometimes the ACTUAL data paths specified in the plug-in and the location the "Read Me" file TELLS me to extract them are different, but you have to blame the modder for that. The most common example of this would be when the "Read Me" directs me to extract the files to the Morrowind\Data Files folder, but when I look at the data path specified in the plug-in, it will show, for examle, "Data Files\Meshes\..."; so extracting them as the "Read Me" specifies, would create a Data Files sub-folder (MW\Data Files\Data Files), and screw-up your install. With Zip Genius this is easy to both identify and correct. One of the many reasons I both use and recommend it. Come on Switch... come into the Light that IS... Zip Genius. :P

If I understand you correctly, what you are doing is un-zipping the archived plug-in file into a temporary folder and then moving the files into the their proper locations, manually. I don't see anything wrong with that, but I'm unclear on exactly what it accomplishes(?). The individual files for any particular plug-in need to be where they need to be; and whether they are moved to those locations manually or extracted there by the archive program the end result, to me anyway, appears to be the same. Further, since most modders specify the proper data-paths for the files in their particular plug-in, it seems to me that the possibility of getting files in the wrong location would be much less when allowing the archive utility to handle that. These are just my opinion's of course, and if you have a system that works for you and you like it, by all means stick with it. Your idea of compressing the "Data Files" folder is good one. I like that idea very much.

Thank you Switch, for bringing some relevancy to this thread. :P

Do you mean THIS "Egg of Time"?? http://www.satya.com/madmoon/egg.htm What is there to say about it??

Pffffffttt... I wish we had MORE admin's like Daerk. Just my two-cents-worth. /sucking up :P

I don't mean to be curt, but did you even bother to read the initial post?? "You’ll need to have a decent compression utility first. I use Zip Genius, personally, but many people will suggest Win Ace or Win RAR as well. I don’t think it matters as long as you find one you like and learn to use it. Read the Help Files - lots of good stuff in them." http://www.zipgenius.it/intweb/dl.asp

Arrrghhh... Note to self: Log in THEN post... Log in THEN post...

You d'Man, Switch... you d'Man on the wall. Thanks! And just so you know... Zip Genius COULD have done it all... It just didn't WANT to. :P