I was pulling my hair for a whole week trying to install FSX. I got all sort of errors, read errors, write errors, access right and what have you. I even posted the DVDs back for an exchange, blaming bad DVDs. All the error messages led me to bark at the wrong tree. The real issue - the DVD drive.I was using my sole DVD drive - a DVD writer to install FSX. For some strange reason, a DVD writer isn't a good reader. When it finally dawned on me that it could be the drive, I pulled out my old DVD ROM, connected it to the machine and the whole installation went through without a glitch! So if you have installation problems and you are using a DVD writer, be warned! :-wave M Tan-------------------------ASRock 939Dual SATA2AMD Dual Athlon 4400+ 2G Geforce 7900GSViewSonic 21" VX2025WMXP SP2

Interesting, but not surprising. I currently have two drives, a MSI DVD ROM drive and a CD/RW drive. I have in the past had to remove another DVD drive because over time it simply went kaput on me. The OP does have a point however... if you are having continual installation problems, check the function of that specific drive. You will save yourself a lot of trouble, and always keep a backup drive somewhere in case of an upgrade... keep backups for a lot of things. I have an old PCI-E video card that has saved my butt more times than I want to remember.