Game won't install - hangs up on casthumb.package

[punkrockmama]

Hey all,

My husband and I recently wiped my computer clean and are trying to reinstall the game.  We've been trying for 5 days. It won't install.  It takes several hours, and then right near the end it hangs up on "casthumb.package".  We keep clicking retry and it gets a little farther and farther every time, but eventually comes to a dead stop.

Frustrating.  We have tried copying all the files on the disc to the hard drive and installing, and it won't work.  We have tried searching for the file on torrent sites, but our internet connection is crap and I can't get any of my torrent programs to work either.  I thought maybe it was just my computer (my laptop does not like my cd drive), but his work laptop has the same problem.

HELP??!  I figured if anybody has a solution, it has to be someone here.  I did a search and didn't find anything.


ETA: also, hubby says another file, something like "fullbuild_1.package" or something like that, is also not being copied when he tried to copy it to the hard drive.

[Carl]

Got a family member with a newer drive? Sometimes a great drive can read discs others can't as you already know. If possible I would get the files from the CD that way, store them on a jump drive and bring them home. Copy all of the other files to the drive at home and put in the 2 failed files. The installs do work directly from the drive, so you were on to something.

There isn't a lot you can do if the discs just can't be read. The files are really large or I would send them to you myself. The CASthumbnails file is 340mb for vanilla Sims 3.

[Seabody]

Do you get a popup that looks something like this (Except referencing Sims files)?


 
Because if so, your disc is most likely scratched. A Cyclic Redundancy Check (I'll refer to it as CRC from hereonin) occurs when a disc is scratched. The computer will tell the disc to spin faster in an attempt to read it, before the disc finally gives up and produces a CRC. Before a CRC occurs, you can hear a grinding noise.
If your problem is indeed a CRC, I'd reccommend cleaning the disc - in New Zealand, at least, United Video stores will typically resurface discs for you, for a price of $8. You can also do it at home - when I had a CRC, Gheez said I should just try wiping it with a piece of cloth (if you have glasses, use the cloth that came with the case).

[punkrockmama]

Yes, we get an error like that.  The disc is a little scratched. 

My computer is 3 years old, but my husband's is new.  It must be the disc.

My husband says, if you post a link for us to download the files, he will do it.. he loves the game.. doesn't care if it takes days.. although at work, he could download that pretty fast. I'll PM you his work email.

Thanks for the help so far! 

[Carl]

I will help you out within a day or two

[punkrockmama]

Thanks Carl!!