Article ID: 306986 - Last Review: January 31, 2007 - Revision: 2.4

You receive an "An Internal Error has occurred” or a “Setup cannot create the folder” when you install Office XP

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This article was previously published under Q306986

SYMPTOMS

When you run Setup for Office, you may receive one of the following error messages or a combination of these error messages:

Internal Error 2381: An internal error has occurred....

Internal Error 1303: ...

Internal Error 1310: ...

Internal Error 1315:...

Internal Error 1317: Setup cannot create the folder...

NOTE: The remaining text of the error messages varies and is very important to note for troubleshooting the problem.

For example, if you view the log file in the %temp% folder, you may read text similar to the following:


MSI (s) (3C:C0): Note: 1: 2381 2: C:\Program Files\office2000\Office10\1033\ 3:  
Error 2381. An internal error has occurred. (C:\Program 
Files\office2000\Office10\1033\                  ) Contact Microsoft
 Product Support Services (PSS) for assistance. For information about how to
 contact PSS, see E:\FILES\PFILES\MSOFFICE\OFFICE10\1033\PSS10R.CHM.

MSI (s) (3C:C0): Product: Microsoft Office XP Professional with FrontPage 
-- Error 2381. An internal error has occurred. (C:\Program 
Files\office2000\Office10\1033\                  ) Contact Microsoft 
Product Support Services (PSS) for assistance. For in

formation about how to contact PSS, see 
E:\FILES\PFILES\MSOFFICE\OFFICE10\1033\PSS10R.CHM.

Action ended 11:11:56: InstallExecute. Return value 3.

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CAUSE

These error messages can occur if all of the following are true:

You are installing Office on Microsoft Windows XP, Microsoft Windows 2000, or Microsoft Windows NT 4.0. -and-
The hard disk that contains the Winnt folder or the hard disk to which you are installing Office is formatted with the NTFS file system. -and-
You have incorrect permissions set on these disks.

For example, this problem has been reported to occur when there were only Read permissions on the following folders or any other subfolders of these folders:

\Program Files\Microsoft Visual Studio
\Program Files\Common Files\Microsoft Shared
\Program Files
\Program Files\Common Files

Even though Microsoft Office is being installed into the \Program Files\Microsoft Office folder, there are shared features that must be installed into other folders on your hard disk.

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RESOLUTION

To resolve this problem, ensure that you have the necessary permissions on your hard disk or disks. To do this, follow these steps.

NOTE: Because there are several versions of Microsoft Windows, the following steps may be different on your computer. If they are, see your product documentation to complete these steps.

In Windows NT Explorer, select the folder.
Right-click the folder, and then click Properties on the shortcut menu.
On the Security tab, click Permissions.
Select the Everyone group, and then click Full Control in the Type of Access list.
Select the Replace Permissions on Subdirectories check box.
Click OK.
Click Yes to the prompt confirming whether you want to replace permissions on all subdirectories.
Click OK in the folder name Properties dialog box (where folder name is the name of the folder that you selected in step 1).
Run Office Setup.