Unable to Install (patch)

Every time I start up the game and there is a patch to download, when it says "Connecting to ArenaNet..." it comes up with the screen which says:
"Unable to Install

The installer could not write Guild Wars to the specified directory. Please check that you have administrative access, that you have permission to install programs in the specified directory, and that there is sufficient space available on the drive."

I have administrative access, I have permission to install to that directory, and I have sufficient space.

I have to attempt to uninstall it, which only freezes on the add/remove screen. Then since the uninstall doesnt work I delete the folder from the drive. Then reinstall, and it works again. But, everytime there's a download/patch, I have to redo it all again. Help please???

Maybe you ought to find a registry cleaner. There could be some crap in there that's causing this trouble. I use RegSeeker, although I have had some false positives with it, so you have to know what you're doing. There are plenty out there that you can use.

Try uninstalling, then using one of these utilities. Find one that is rated well, though. You don't want it to trash your registry and cause you to have to reinstall windows.

I used a trial Registry Cleaner, which limits you by only fixing 2 items from each category. But you can rescan again and fix 2 more... HAH, so I just did that like 20 times. It scans faster after the first time. :P

So, we'll see if it helped, next patch.

Thanks.

Little tip that you didn't hear from me.

Any of these programs that have a timed usage or number of times, you can reset the counter by uninstalling the program and going into your registry and deleting their values from the system.

Reinstall the program and keep putting it to use.

*Ahem* or setting you clock back...

what.. me?

Welp, another patch, and another failed install... WEEEEEEEE

Tech support hasn't written back either.

Well, you could try reinstalling. Try the download as you go option if you don't want to wait and install forever.

I have to reinstall it every time...

I have a feeling its the drive itself?

Are you able to save other files (from Word or whatever) onto that drive without any problems?

Check the folder permissions and make sure they are writable.

WARNING: DON'T SAY I DIDN'T WARN YOU.

You can always try using Start -> Run -> Type: Regedit
Manually locate the Guild Wars files and delete them from your computer. It might reset whatever the problem is so it wont happen anymore. I'm not sure what the GW Reg files are called, but doing a search for something like "Guild" might display the registeries. Delete only the files, not the folders, and use your best judgement when it comes to deleting files with that program as an error could really screw up some programs on you.

I've uninstalled, deleted all finds of guild wars and arenanet from the registry and then reinstalled. And yes, I can save to that directory... :\

Nibal, I had the exact same problem. I'm sure it's not my drive as I've had zero problems with this drive with anything else and I've checked permissions, admin rights, free space: all fine.

I have yet to recieve a reply from the NC Interactive Support (other than automated ones *grumble*) But, I did find an ugly workaround to it (it's almost as much trouble as reinstalling, but hope it might help you or someone else find what exactly the problem is.) So, attached below is what I sent NC.

----------------------------------------------
Hi,

I just thought I would add a few more details on this, since I found
an ugly workaround for it:

1) I inserted the game cd and tried to do a "Repair Install" but that
gave a samilar error mesagge.

2) So after this I went into the guild wars install directory and
tried to manually delete the game files (with a plan of doing "repair
install" after this) But, what I found when trying to do this is that
windows gave an error message saying that gw.exe was in use and could
not be deleted.

3) So I tried rebooting then doing 1 and 2 again, but still got the
same error. It seemed like this file was starting with windows or
something.

4) Now the ugly workaround: I rebooted into safe mode and then made a
copy of gw.exe into the game directory and deleted the actual file
called gw.exe.

5) then rebooted into windows in normal mode and renamed 'Copy of
gw.exe' back to gw.exe

6) (Not sure if this makes a difference but the guild wars cd wass in
the cd drive at this point) I then ran guild wars and it updated
successfully.

Additional Info:

* one other thing which may have triggered the whole thing was that
the night before I had taken the guild wars CD out of the CD drive. So
this was the first time I was running guild wars and started have the
above problems.

Hope this all helps you folk trace the root cause.
----------------------------------------------

EDIT: Ah, for the workaround, just do steps 4, 5 and 6.

I found out a way to get around it without having to reinstall...

First copy and past GW.exe into the same folder its in already.

Then change the name of the original GW.exe to GW1.exe

Then change the name of the copy to GW.exe

Now run it and it should work fine. GW1.exe will remain in your folder but you can remove it later on by going into windows in safe mode and deleting it.

Really strange...
I just had this issue pop up on another machine. Followed Hugos instructions and it worked out just fine. Hmph.

Have you tryed using system restore?