UESP Forums

Hello all. I'm a first timer, so be nice.

So a little while ago I upgraded to Windows 7. The upgrade took all of my old files and stuck them in a new directory, windows.old, and left me with an otherwise clean hard drive. In the process of reinstalling my old programs, neither Oblivion nor Fallout 3 would install, giving me an error code as soon as I clicked the button. This frustrated me to no end, and the only way I eventually got my games back was to copy/paste all of the data from the Program Files folder in the windows.old directory. I then copy/pasted my old save games, and loaded up Oblivion. When I loaded my most recent save, however, the game told me that this save relied on data that was no longer present on my system, and some things would not show up. I clicked ok, and found myself in an empty yard where the house of the Knights of the Nine used to be, holding a Dawnfang that didn't have a model. I tried putting in the second disk to reinstall Shivering Isles and Knights of the Nine, but I got the error code that I had gotten before I copy/pasted all my game data. Does anyone have any ideas on what I could do to get my DLC to work properly? I've thought of trying to find pirated copies online, and just using them, but I'd like that to be a last resort, if possible. By the way, in addition to Shivering Isles and Knights of the Nine, I also downloaded the Thieves Den and Orrery plug-ins, though I haven't checked yet to see if they work.

I'm not sure if it works the same for PC's as it does when a xbox RROD's but certain license/security things mean that I had to redownload all my dlc's when I got my new xbox. Maybe the PC's require a similar measure?

I would suspect the problem has something to do either with your registry, or a file such as Oblivion.ini that tells Oblivion where to find the downloaded content. One of the functions of installing (as opposed to just copying/pasting files into the Program Files directory) is that you register the program in your computer's registry. If that registration doesn't happen then the program can have problems finding critical resources such as the DLC content.

What error were you getting when you tried to install Oblivion on Win7? If it's the one I think you were getting, then there's a way around it.

One other thought - if you installed the 64 bit version of Windows, then you should have copied and pasted into the "Program Files (x86)" folder, not "Program Files".

The error code I got when trying to do a fresh install was with Installshield, an error 5006: 0x8000ffff. All of the fixes online described either renaming the Installshield folder or deleting it, which I tried numerous times with no success, and downloading a hotfix for Installshiled, which also gave me an error when trying to install. And I did make sure to copy the files to Program Files (x86). On that note, why do I have that folder in addition to a regular Program Files folder?

The regular Program Files folder is for 64-bit applications, and the Program Files (x86) folder is for 32-bit applications such as Oblivion. I would guess that this is the source of your problem: Oblivion is expecting to find the DLC in the Program Files folder, but instead it's in the Program Files (x86) folder. The only way to get around this is to install I'm afraid.

I'll have to do some research on that error and get back to you.

Thanks for the help. I really appreciate it.

I believe I have found the problem. As I said earlier, the installation error happened with both Oblivion and Fallout 3, so I started delving through the Fallout 3 forums to see if anyone else had had this installation error with Fallout. Apparently, this installation error has to do with a slight hiccup that tends to happen when installing Windows 7. 7 creates an extensionless "Program" file on the hard drive that contains a few IRC files, but because of misnaming them, can't use them. This file does tend to mess with installations, though. I deleted the file, was able to install both Fallout 3 and Oblivion, and am enjoying these great games again, saved files and DLC intact. Thanks for your help. Now, off to finish Knights of the Nine and Shivering Isles!

Nice! Glad to hear you're able to start playing around in Cyrodiil.