OFF97: "Error Reading CD-ROM"/Blue Screen During Setup

When you run the Microsoft Office 97 Setup program, the screen turns blue and you receive an error message similar to the following:

This problem may occur if all of the following conditions are true:

• You are installing an upgrade version (as opposed to a retail version) of Microsoft Office 97 on a computer running Microsoft Windows 95.
  
  -and-
• The Setup program was unable to locate any qualifying products on your computer's hard disk. As a result, you received a dialog box containing the following message:
  Upgrade Check - Hard Disk Search Failed
  Setup has searched your hard disk, and cannot find any of the
  qualifying products listed on the Microsoft Office 97 box.
  -and-
• You then removed the Microsoft Office 97 compact disc from the CD-ROM drive and inserted the compact disc for a qualifying product (Microsoft Office 7.0, for example).

Note that the problem only occurs if you remove the Microsoft Office 97 compact disc from the CD-ROM drive.

Turn Off Auto Insert Notification

To prevent this problem from occurring, turn off the Auto Insert Notification feature for the CD-ROM drive before you run Microsoft Office 97 Setup. To do this:

1. On your desktop, using the right mouse button (right-click), click My Computer. On the shortcut menu, click Properties.
2. In the System Properties dialog box, click the Device Manager tab.
3. In the list of devices, click the plus sign (+) to the left of CDROM. Then, click the first CD-ROM drive listed immediately below CDROM. Click Properties.
4. Click the Settings tab.
5. Under Options, click to clear the Auto Insert Notification check box.
6. Click OK. Then, click OK again.
7. When you are prompted to restart your computer, click Yes.

Run Microsoft Office 97 Setup

After your computer restarts, run the Microsoft Office 97 Setup program. If you receive the "Upgrade Check - Hard Disk Search Failed" dialog box, perform the following steps:

1. Remove the Microsoft Office 97 compact disc from the CD-ROM drive, and insert the qualifying product's compact disc.
2. Click Locate.
3. In the Locate Directory dialog box, switch to the CD-ROM drive, and click OK.
4. When the Microsoft Office 97 Setup dialog box appears, remove the qualifying product's compact disc from the CD-ROM drive, and insert the Microsoft Office 97 compact disc.
5. Click OK.

Reset Auto Insert Notification

After Microsoft Office 97 Setup is complete, you may want to reset the Auto Insert Notification feature for the CD-ROM drive. To do this, follow the same steps shown in the "Turn Office Auto Insert Notification" section, but click to select the Auto Insert Notification check box in step 5.

This behavior is by design of the Auto Insert Notification feature in Microsoft Windows 95.

NOTE: This problem has not been observed to occur in Microsoft Windows NT, versions 3.51 and 4.0.

When you place a compact disc in the CD-ROM drive while running Microsoft Windows 95, the Auto Insert Notification feature checks the compact disc for an Autorun.inf file. If Windows 95 finds the Autorun.inf file on the compact disc, programs listed in that file run automatically.

This may cause problems if you remove the Microsoft Office 97 compact disc during the Office 97 Setup, and insert a different compact disc into the CD- ROM drive. The problems may occur because the Microsoft Office 97 Setup program is unable to read its own Setup.exe file from the newly inserted compact disc.