Re-Install of Final Cut Studio 2 aborts

I've tried twice to re-install Final Cut Studio 2 and it goes along fine through the first three discs of the install (Final Cut Studio, Audio Content 1 and Audio Content 2). Then, instead of prompting me for Audio Content 3, it instead prompts me again for the Final Cut Studio disc; then when I've inserted it, it gives me the message: "There was an error with the installation. Please try again." (Or words very similar to that).

Here are the details:

I am running OS X 10.4.11 on a 2.5 GHz PowerPC G5. 8GB RAM.

A couple months ago, I had my processor and system drive replaced, as well as my RAM upgraded from 4GB. Melrose Mac was not able to do a straight data transfer on my system drive because of a few bad blocks. Rather than have them do a very expensive data recovery, I simply had them install the OS and I started over clean.

Then I mounted my old system drive externally and copied over files and applications as needed. Some files that would not copy over (suggesting to me that they occupied some of the bad blocks) were FCP-related. I've had very minimal FCP work to do in the meantime, so I didn't bother immediately with a re-install. Final Cut itself has worked fine. Compressor wouldn't open at all. I knew a re-install would be necessary at some point.

I'm starting a bigger project in a couple weeks, so now's the time. Only, I'm having the problem mentioned above.

These are the same discs I installed with about three years ago, and everything worked great before I had the repairs done. OS is the same I've been using all that time as well.

I honestly can't figure out why a complete re-install would abort, and the error message isn't giving me any clues.

Help.

If you go to the installer log (I think it's in the Help menu) it will tell you what the error was.

My software:
Pro Maintenance Tools - Tools to keep Final Cut Studio, Final Cut Pro X, Avid Media Composer and Adobe Premiere Pro running smoothly and fix problems when they arise
Pro Media Tools - Edit QuickTime chapters and metadata, detect gamma shifts, edit markers, watch renders and more
More tools...

Thanks for that. I ran it again, just to see what the log said. (By the way, it actually does begin the install of Audio Content 3 before crapping out). Anyway, here are the last two lines of the installer log (errors only):

BomFatalError - cpio read error: bad file format
Install failed: Some files for AudioContentforSoundtrackPro5 may not have been written correctly.

Wondering if I should just skip Soundtrack Pro on the install since I don't really use it.

There had also been many many errors (though non-fatal ones) during the install from the main disc, of this nature:

" ./Applications/Color.app/Contents/Resources/MRCheckPro.bundle (version 1.4.0.970000) was not installed because a newer version (1.4.0.2886400) already exists."

This is presumably because I had done several downloadable updates since first installing from the discs a few years ago. Not sure if these errors are anything I should be concerned about.

Looks like you have a damaged disc. You should get in contact with Apple (1-800-MY-APPLE) and see if they'll replace it for you.

As for the second error, that's nothing to worry about. It just means, as you correctly reasoned, that you have newer versions of the apps on your system.

My software:
Pro Maintenance Tools - Tools to keep Final Cut Studio, Final Cut Pro X, Avid Media Composer and Adobe Premiere Pro running smoothly and fix problems when they arise
Pro Media Tools - Edit QuickTime chapters and metadata, detect gamma shifts, edit markers, watch renders and more
More tools...

Darrin,

In addition to Jon's good advice, I'll add a few more things for you to consider.

I've seen the error occur on systems with "bad," usually third-party, RAM.

As you mentioned, if your disc is bad (Audio Content 3), you may be able to do a custom install, skipping that part of the process (SoundTrack Pro). You also may try loading the disc on a different machine, or even try making a disk image (DMG) of that disc. I've had discs that were problematic on a specific model of DVD drive but worked on another brand.

Additionally, I would recommend that you erase the main drive on which you'll be installing FCS and reinstall the OS, FCS, etc. This isn't a bad thing to do every couple of years.

You may want to consider buying a new startup drive and upgrading to Leopard (10.5). Leopard is a bit more robust than Tiger.

Please let us know what your solution was. Thanks.


-Dave