Problem with CDs

lordasrael · Post by **lordasrael** » Fri Aug 22, 2003 12:48 pm

I recently bought Baldur's Gate and Tales of the Sword Coast together; BG was on two CDs and TotSC on one. However, the game keeps asking for CD 3, 4 and 5. Is there any way to stop it doing that? I've emailed the Interplay support and asked about it, but they weren't very helpful - they just old me to reinstall without installing the patch (which was for some reason included with the game). The only thing I can think of is borrowing the "missing" cds off a friend and copying them, which I usually don't like doing, but if it's the only way to get to Chapter 2-7, I may have to.

DraySkullan · Post by **DraySkullan** » Fri Aug 22, 2003 1:45 pm

Did you buy it new or used? The only thing i can think of is if it was used, somewhere along the way disc 1 from the combo set was replaced with a disc 1 from a normal set.

I have the same set, and had no problems installing.

Stilgar · Post by **Stilgar** » Fri Aug 22, 2003 1:58 pm

I have the 6cd version, and there the game keeps asking to change CD's unless you do a full install.

Maybe you should try that and see if it works

lordasrael · Post by **lordasrael** » Fri Aug 22, 2003 3:23 pm

I bought it new, and the CDs are numbered 1/2 and 2/2. I've tried doing a full installation, but it asks for the cd during the installation instead of when I try to change area. I thought one or both of the CDs might have files from the other three cds, but it doesn't look like it.

VonDondu · Post by **VonDondu** » Fri Aug 22, 2003 5:50 pm

I used to have trouble installing the four-disk version of Baldur's Gate 2: Shadows of Amn because it would reach 95% and then ask for "CD 5". I found the solution on Bioware's troubleshooting page. I don't know the link to the BG1 troubleshooting page, but I think you could apply the same solution.

The easiest way to work around a problem like this is to do a Minimum install and then manually convert it to a Full install. To make the conversion to a Full install, you need to create two subdirectories in your Baldur's Gate folder called \DATA and \MOVIES and then copy all of the files from the CDs into those two folders. For example, if your Baldur's Gate folder is called C:\GAMES\BG, then you'll put all the data and all the movies into the folders named C:\GAMES\BG\DATA and C:\GAMES\BG\MOVIES. Some of the files might be duplicates (the dates might vary but the names and file sizes are the same), but you only need one copy of each of them. Some people like to create a subdirectory for each CD (for example, C:\GAMES\BG\CD2, C:\GAMES\BG\CD3, etc.), but it takes up hundreds of megabytes of more hard drive space if you do it that way because of the redundancy. It's better to have all the CDs share one \DATA directory and one \MOVIE directory instead of creating one for each CD. After you copy the files from the CDs to your hard drive, you need to edit the lines in your BALDUR.INI file under the section called [Alias] so the game will know where to find the files it needs. Using C:\GAMES\BG\ as an example again, here's what those lines should like:

[Alias]
HD0:=C:\GAMES\BG\
CD1:=C:\GAMES\BG\
CD2:=C:\GAMES\BG\
CD3:=C:\GAMES\BG\
CD4:=C:\GAMES\BG\
CD5:=C:\GAMES\BG\
CD6:=C:\GAMES\BG\ (if Tales of the Sword Coast is installed)

That way, instead of asking for the CDs, the game will look in the \DATA and \MOVIE subdirectories on your hard drive.

Baldur's Gate 2: Shadows of Amn has an additional line in the BALDUR.INI file called "Install Type=x", where "x" is a number that determines what kind of installation you have--Minimum, Recommended, or Full. But I don't think that the BG1 BALDUR.INI file has a line like that.

I'm concerned about a couple of issues if you try to make a manual conversion of BG1, though. If I'm not mistaken, I think the Minimum Install does not install all of the soundsets, and it sets the cache size too small to play a Multiplayer game, so you also need to do something about those issues. The soundsets are only about 5MB total, so you could copy them onto CD or floppies from someone else's computer. If they're already on your hard drive after trying to install the game unsuccessfully, just store them in a temporary directory and then copy them to your \SOUNDS directory after you do a Minimum install. Then run the Setup utility to your Cache size, and I think you'll be all set.

I hope this helps!

lordasrael · Post by **lordasrael** » Sat Aug 23, 2003 6:03 am

No luck. The CDs only have the data files from CD 1 and 2, not the others. I even manually checked; files like AREA4800.bif (Nashkel) are missing.

Stilgar · Post by **Stilgar** » Sat Aug 23, 2003 6:09 am

Originally posted by lordasrael
No luck. The CDs only have the data files from CD 1 and 2, not the others. I even manually checked; files like AREA4800.bif (Nashkel) are missing.

Then you should ask your money back in the store