CS5 "a problem occured while extracting some files...."

[SonjaY79]

I used both Firefox and IE to download the update for CS5. All seemed to successfully download to my desktop where I wanted them. When I double clicked on the .exe file, it began to extract and got to 99% (sometimes 100%) before giving me the error "A problem occured while extracting some files. Check availabile space on your computer and the write privilages on the destination folder."

I am using Windows XP, I'm the admin so I'm not sure what privilages I need.

I have 66 G of free space

*I tried using 7zip to extract the files, did not work.

*I tried to just get into the folder which was created during the extract and clicked on set-up.exe - it gave me the message "We've encountered the following issues: Installer failed to initialize. File not found. Please download Adobe Support Advisor to detect the problem." including a link to where I can do that. I did that and so far, it is stuck on "please wait while the application initializes." I'm thinking it's not going to happen so I've come here.

Any ideas would be appreciated!

[Chris Cox]

Even 2 people with bad downloads does not indicate a problem that could be fixed on the source side.  If there was a problem on the Adobe servers, we would be seeing tens of thousands of bad downloads, at a minimum.

It is possible for checksums to pass in some circumstances with corrupt data -- it's maybe a one in 10 million chance, but it can happen.  TCP/IP already should discard corrupt packets and handle missing packets, and the Akamai downloader is supposed to do additional error detection.  But with tens of millions of downloads, some of them are bound to be corrupt due to circumstances beyond our control.

So, what exactly can Adobe do about your bad download?

[Kruelaid]

Here's a little nugget about customer service for you Chris. If two people report the problem, there are a whole lot more out there that haven't reported it yet, or they solved it without your help (haha, your "help", that's rich, I'm quite the comedian). And in customer service, it's not up to the customer to suggest what YOU AT  ADOBE can do about it, it's up to YOU to be helpful, to help us find a solution if one can be found.

Chris wrote: "Even 2 people with bad downloads does not indicate a problem that could  be fixed on the source side.  If there was a problem on the Adobe  servers, we would be seeing tens of thousands of bad downloads, at a  minimum."

Adobe is delivering an application, and Adobe has a responsibility to ensure that the application runs on a properly installed system. So it IS Adobe's concern if their installer isn't working, and at the very least it should involve some good troubleshooting questions for the person having the problem.

And BTW, I'm calling total BS on the checksums passing bad data at 1 in 10 million. Computers would all be totally useless if that were true because to a computer 1 in 10 million happens all the time. If Akami is running functioning error detection, then the problem is  in the extraction, or in our operating systems.

And I am sure now that my problem can't be checksum. I've been talking this over with the programmer next to me and I just remembered that after I reinstalled my OS last night, I tried to install CS5 with the same ORIGINAL zip package I used a month earlier at work and home. Yes, the first time it worked, but when I reinstalled it didn't. So I can only conclude that (most probably) the issue is not with a corrupted download. It's probably something with the operating system and the extractor. In other words nothing is broken, but something is screwing a normally simple process.

BTW, Chris, when a company asks "what should we do about it" I know they're just being lazy and aren't interested in helping... or they might be stupid and incapable of helping. Again, as I hold Adobe customer service in some regard,  especially the dudes in the call center (in India it sounds like) who have been great, I'm  just gonna reckon that this is you're own problem, not Adobe's.

[Chris Cox]

Observer - see post #40 for more details about downloads.

after I reinstalled my OS last night, I tried to install CS5 with the same ORIGINAL zip package...the first time it worked, but when I reinstalled it didn't.

It could also be something wrong with the OS install, something wrong with the hard disk, something wrong with the RAM or CPU, some additional software you installed, some additional software you didn't realize was installed (shovelware or malware), etc.  Yes, something is conflicting that wasn't there before, or at least worked before (even some hardware factors could appear random).

Of course it is our concern if the installer isn't working, or the downloads don't work reliably for most people -- which is why we are investigating such problems.  But when you describe a bad download, or a problem specific to your system and demand that Adobe do something about it.... well, what can we do?  It's almost like yelling at the weatherman to do something about the rain.

I know they're just being lazy and aren't interested in helping.

Or they are asking an open ended question of someone who is being hostile to the people trying to help them, in an effort to get more specific details.

[Kruelaid]

Thank you, Chris I've already seen post 40, and I'd say that post is more characteristic of the excellent Adobe service that I've mentioned several times in my posts and I appreciate it (Karen).

For the record, you have things out of order, I became pointed after you did nothing but ask open ended questions and tried turn this back on us, not before. Your questions, you might have noticed, were not helping.

Also, did I demand Adobe do anything for me? I can't see it. I was just explaining the cirucumstances of a problem which I've already worked around in the hope that it might help someone else, or in the hope that someone on your end might ask me for some information that might help us determine what really is happening. So the facts are completely contrary to how you want them colored, sir: I am demanding nothing, and giving some of my time to see if my experience with this issue may be helpful to someone on your end.

Apparently it is not helpful, and in fact all I get is some guy who likes to turn things back on the customers.

[Kruelaid]

Incidentally, Mr. Cox, I just noticed that your tag says you are an Adobe employee. I confess that you are the most impolite and least helpful Adobe representative that I have ever met. I promise to not hold this against the company, and only you personally.

Again, cheers,

o.0

[KarenStore]

Hi Everyone,

Couple comments:

1.  Both the store and trials teams are taking download issues very  seriously and focusing a lot of effort on improving this area for  customers.  So please know that we are listening and working hard on  this area.

2. With very large downloads and slow and/or  problematic connections there is a small potential for a file to be  corrupted and not download completely due to packet loss etc.  So the  longer the download takes, the more chance there is for a connection  issue or packet loss. This should be a rare occurance and TCP/IP  protocols and the download manager should handle those conditions, but I  would recommend always downloading over the fastest and more reliable  connection that you may have.  This would include using a hardline  connection rather than wireless since that might degrade your download  speed and make the download take longer.  Wireless connections and  protocols have improved over the years so the reliability of wireless  shouldn't really be an issue, just the time to download gives more  opportunity for your connection to drop etc. and potentially cause  problems.

3. We are in the process of evaluating the latest version  of the Akamai download manager v3.0.  The store is currently using v2.x.  This newer version 3.0 is in use currently  on the trials download site for CS5 products and suites, so you can download the main product  installers for CS5 products and suites using that version of the  download manager.  That download manager version does integrity checks  (checksums) as it downloads chunks of the file to the client system and  will re-execute a download of a chunk of the file that fails integrity  check.  So if you want better integrity checking, try the v3.0 download  experience on the trials site for the CS5 product of interest.

4. we have also recently added the option to download  without the Akamai download manager in your store download center.  This  is shown as "Alternate Download Method" in your download area for the  store and it gives you access to direct HTTP download links in case you  want to bypass the Akamai Download Manager altogether.  Note: for files  over 2Gb, it is recommended that you use either Firefox or Internet  Explorer 8 if you are downloading on Windows with HTTP, due to HTTP  limitations with some versions of Internet Explorer (see  http://support.microsoft.com/kb/298618).   Please note that this option  is not yet available on the HTML versions of our stores (which you will  get if you dont have the Flash Player installed) but it will be very  soon.

5. as I posted a while back, you can confirm the  checksum of your downloaded Photoshop files by running a checksum.

You   can use a free utility called Fastsum  ( http://www.fastsum.com/ ) to  generate the checksum which should match these values:

For the Windows English files the checksums would be:

Photoshop_12_LS1.7z      should be    193b13bac6b850a62c75460cbed42b35 

Photoshop_12_LS1.exe  should be   431864652903c33049d352a9e0c0991b 

here are all of the files for all languages Mac and Windows

NAME	SIZE(bytes)	MD5 CHECKSUM
Photoshop_12_LS1.dmg	1222161289	a43cadc3707d8e21a9defa3d6e87f58b
Photoshop_12_LS1.7z	1026293791	193b13bac6b850a62c75460cbed42b35
Photoshop_12_LS1.exe	1228400	431864652903c33049d352a9e0c0991b
Photoshop_12_LS2.dmg	1189718921	af14786c77b7d486a7b4d019601e43cb
Photoshop_12_LS2.7z	1027269416	d51dec472d34afa49cd45138e86b6356
Photoshop_12_LS2.exe	1228400	f7db62b33b0060234b244e9b240f9f5e
Photoshop_12_LS4.dmg	1571828617	9ad3c91a772b2610dfffc34c46913b19
Photoshop_12_LS4.7z	1052205375	55c94bf72e9f05301349be8aea68932e
Photoshop_12_LS4.exe	1228400	8fe1a5dac5d47c7a9d5a5501644b25b2

If you find that your checksum doesn't match, here are a couple of recommendations/options not necessarily listed in any preferred order:

- try downloading on another computer or connection (like at work) and transferring the downloaded files to your other computer

- try another browser

- try downloading the files from the trials site and use the newer version of the DLM 3.0

- try the direct HTTP download links

If the checksum does match and you are still having issues, then it might be related to an extraction issue with the .7z file or something.  I have to admit, I am having trouble determining from this thread how many of you are saying the checksum matchs and you have issues and how many are saying the checksum doesn't match.  Just to clarify as well how the .7z file and .exe file are supposed to work, you should have both of those files in the same directory and then you should run/execute the .exe file.  You should not be trying to uncompress the .7z file with some compression tool.  Just run the .exe file which should unpack the .7z and start your installation. Just want to make it very clear that you should not be trying to "uncompress" or "run" the .7z file.

Lastly, I am not aware of an issue with Windows XP Home and downloads or installation.  I'm sure who stated at that was an issue...but Windows XP Home should be supported.

I hope this info helps in some way.

Regards,

Karen

[KarenStore]

Hi Scattered,

I will escalate this up to a few people in the appropriate areas, but I wanted to get some clarificaition.

So what behavior/error do you see when the path is too long?

Do you get an error message that there was a problem extracting?

Please also send your system information:  OS version, path where you had the files and failed to extract, etc

Thanks

karen

[Kruelaid]

Hi Karen,

As suggested by Scattered I tried putting the download in my C root, and opening into it, as well as both in and into other combination of root directories. The problem persists. Just like it says in the OP, the message reads "A problem occured while extracting some files. Check availabile space  on your computer and the write privilages on the destination folder."

I tried everything suggested on this thread (and more) and nothing has worked. Both the original download over broadband from a month ago (which worked a month ago on this computer), and yesterday's download give me the same error message.

I'm running a sparkling and fresh install of Windows 7 Ultimate on an mostly empty 128G OCZ SS main drive and have minimal software (I think only MS Office 2007, Winzip 14.5, VLC, Daemon Tools Lite, Flashget3, Firefox and AVG Internet Security installed so far). I'm installing CS5 Design Premium. Insterestingly, the Adobe Acrobat installer worked fine.

As I said several times, I've got the install files extracted from my office workstation and I'm going ahead with the install now, so I don't require any additional help from Adobe. I just came in to let you guys know the problem wasn't unique.

Hopefully someone will figure this out.

Cheers!

[Scattered Atoms]

Jeez! It is so frustrating! Must be more than one reason generating this behavior.

T

[KarenStore]

Hi Scattered Atoms and Observer Zero,

(great names BTW),

Can you guys confirm whether the checksums for the files matched what I listed or not?

thanks

Karen at Adobe

[Scattered Atoms]

My install has since worked. I will look at at checksums at home later. How do I figure what they are?

[KarenStore]

Hi,

Here is how you can check the checksums of the downloaded files:

You can use a free utility called Fastsum  ( http://www.fastsum.com/ ) to  generate the checksum which  should match these values:

For the Windows English files the checksums should be:

Photoshop_12_LS1.7z         193b13bac6b850a62c75460cbed42b35 

Photoshop_12_LS1.exe     431864652903c33049d352a9e0c0991b 

Thanks for your time on this.

Karen (Adobe Store)

[Kruelaid]

I'll post my checksums when I get home. But they're for CS5 Design Premium.

By the way, is there anyone else who can't see their cursor when entering posts on this forum. It drives me crazy (using firefox).

[twlalpine10]

I got it.

a) Nothing Adobe tells you to do works.  They do ont acknowlege the problem

b) For Lightroom 3, download the trial version, use your upgrade code to activate.  Good to go.  Do not use the download for the update.

c) For Photoshop CS5, use WinRAR to unzip the files (free download).  NO NOT USE THE ADOBE installer.  it has issues wiht the 64 bit files.

good luck.

[mdleeder]

thank you! i was receiving the same error when trying to install lightroom 3 and it didn't make any sense. i successfully downloaded the trial version and voila it installed correctly!

[DavidLeggett]

Possible Solution:

Run a memory diagnostic test on your computer. Check for faulty ram.

I've been having hours of trouble with this same problem. I didn't expect it to be RAM since most programs have been running fine, and the computer is almost brand new. Sure enough, one of the sticks was faulty. As soon as I removed the faulty ram, the extraction process was flawless.

This probably won't fix everyone's problem, but might be worth a shot if the other suggestions don't work for you!

[AlexanderRider]

Hello everyone,

I had read all the previous comments from customers and employees but it's really annoying because i was expecting high respond from flash support team and i surprised from  Chris Cox who claimed that he is an employee in flash company, indeed he wasn't polite in his comments that replies the customers complains. Therefore, the support team might show high ethics and good manner while communicate with the company's customers since customer always have the right. Furthermore i agree with Observer Zero, he was right about the problem. I am an IT university student and i have been using flash products for a while and recently i had downloaded Adobe flash Professional CS5 for 20 times using differ computers but it has the same problem of extracting. Hence, most of my university staffs, lecturers, and students have given up from it. Please don't ask me much details about it because Observer Zero had given the full details of the problem. As a flash customer, I recommend flash support team to provide us with a direct installer that avoid it us from extracting the 7z file or at less provide us with a portable version so we don't need to extract the installer content. I wish that Flash could provide us with solutions not an interview questions.

Best Regards to my favorite company,

Thanks a lot ..

[Chris Cox]

I can't quite decide if that post is serious or not.

Let's start with the most obvious problems:

This is the Photoshop forum.  Flash Player and Flash Pro have their own forums.

Flash and Photoshop are not companies.  Photoshop and Flash are products from Adobe Systems, Inc.

These forums are not customer support or technical support, they are user to user forums where some employees sometimes respond (many of whom are reading and posting in their own free time).

And I'm really not sure where you can find me not being polite (unless I've developed an evil twin somewhere).

[Kruelaid]

Dear CHRIS

My understanding is that customer comments are always serious. While you apparently don't think so, I know most Adobe reps do.

This guy is experiencing trouble, do you think correcting him about company nomenclature is even pertinent. Why don't you actually help, Chris? Nah... You've already proven yourself useless to me once, why shouldn't you do it with someone else? Right?

Please, if you're not going to contribute something useful, just clam up. And BTW, you are most certainly not polite... but I suppose you have  forgotten our earlier engagement. I am now almost motivated to write to  Adobe and report you for being a dick on their own forums. About 2 inches away Mr. Cox.

Now, this IS pertinent to the bug:

The problem of which the board speaks IS NOT LIMITED TO PHOTOSHOP.

Read back, Chris, and you will find that I had the same problem with CS5 design premium. My problem was never resolved.. luckily I had access to several computers, ONLY ONE of which was able to decompress the files. But... one was enough.

Cheers,

o.0

[Kruelaid]

Hey Alexander,

The best way to get some action on this is to call in to the customer assistance 1-800... (I found the number browsing around here, can't remember where).

Those guys really are helpful and they will follow stuff up. Last time I called I was pretty upset because it was a dumb problem that started because Adobe had given me incomplete info. So I started the conversation by saying "I'm pretty upset here because I have a problem that stared when I got the wrong information from Adobe...." and the guy was really understanding, he knew I was pissed, and everything was fixed up fine within 5 minutes.

The call in center might be in India, from the sound of it, and sometimes the English is a little rough--so you need to explain things carefully (and sometimes explain twice). But they really are awesomely helpful. It beats the hell out of talking to an uninformed tech with a high and mighty attitude on the boards (Karen you're awesome... we know who I'm talking about here).

For my part this extraction problem was never solved. But I had successfully extracted it on my office computer so I just copied the extracted files over to my home comp, and didn't really need any more help. I'm pretty sure that if the problem continues and you can't get any working solution they'll just send you the disk.

I agree %100 that Adobe needs to get this download/file compression problem fixed. I mean it's just such a simple matter.

Cheers,

o.0

[Noel Carboni]

You guys are beyond fortunate to have a high level Adobe software engineer even acknowledge you here.  I'll bet you've never spoken with someone who works in Microsoft Engineering.

Not everyone has the problems you have on your computer.  We must therefore conclude the problem is with your specific computer or config, or even more likely your internet connection.  You should take some responsibility for that (and for educating yourself) rather than lashing out at people genuinely trying to help in their free time.

-Noel

[Kruelaid]

Gosh Noel, I think I have three posts on here already that say I appreciate the great service Adobe has given me. Not to mention that Illustrator, Photoshop, and InDesign are invaluable and fantastically designed tools worthy of my utter and total worship. Yes Chris, if you have helped made Photoshop awesome I thank you for that!

But we're talking about a crappy decompressor here--entirely not a CS5 problem.

Now, Noel, you wrote:

"Not everyone has the problems you have on your computer.  We must  therefore conclude the problem is with your specific computer or config,  or even more likely your internet connection."

There are clearly a number of people experiencing this problem and it's not even limited to people on this forum, so we cannot conclude that the problem is specific to my config or computer. The problem is specific to the computers of those people who have the problem, and being as those people are not reporting OTHER problems with their computers, and their OTHER decompressors are working fine, this must clearly be a conflict between our systems and Adobe's decompressor.

For my part I was unable to unzip CS5 on TWO fresh Win7 installations, I downloaded again and had the same problem. I reinstalled and same problem. Just because this doesn't happen on every computer out there does not make it MY fault. That it has happened to other people as well as me is enough for it to merit some attention from Adobe. In fact it sounds to me from earlier in this thread that Adobe has taken action on this. They want to make their delivery system usable, and as every programmer knows that means accounting for a variety of system settings (mine was default). Frankly, judging from the past attention they've given to the minor rough spots in their systems, I doubt we'll see this problem two years from now when they roll out CS6. But then who knows.

Now, if you think I am "beyond fortunate" to have had Chris come here and ackknowledge me... is the following debut comment from Chris helpful at all, or even necessary?

"The installer and downloads work for almost everyone else.

So what is Adobe supposed to do about your bad download?

How can Adobe post a fix for something that works for most people, and only fails for you?"

<sarcasm>Oh thank you, I feel so honored that he has acknowleged me.</sarcasm>

<reflective moment>Wasn't worth my time. Shouldn't have bothered. Oh well.</reflective moment>

There was the gracious and helpful lady named Karen, and Adam who helpfully  pitched in a suggestion. And while they may not be "high level programmers", at least they were helpful. Thanks Karen and Adam!

NOW. For anyone who really wants to solve this problem, why not try this:

Installation

800-833-6687
Monday–Friday, 5am–7pm PST
Saturday–Sunday, 8am–5pm PST

These guys rule. If you are running pirated software, they ain't gonna help (and I like that).

o.0

PS. Noel: As for educating myself, why would you even make a remark like that? I wasted 4 hours of my life trying to solve this problem on my own. Did you know that discussion of this problem is not confined to the Adobe forums? Really. Anyway, it so happens that the issues you mentioned have already been addressed here by Karen as well as elsewhere, but you wouldn't know that if you didn't read the whole thread. Here's my idea: why don't YOU educate YOURself.

[Guest]

Reading this thread I decided to download and install PS CS5. I already have PS CS4 extended on the computer. Windows 7 Professional 64 bit, 8 gigs of RAM, 2 each 300 gig raptors. Home Built AMD machine.

I used IE9 beta to download CS5.

The download went fine and put the folder on my Desktop.

Turned off Microsoft Security Essentials.

Opened the folder with the 2 files in it, right clicked on the .exe file and put a check mark in it to run as Admin and closed it out. Then double clicked on the .exe file.

The .exe file extracted everything to a new folder on my Desktop called Adobe CS5 with no problems at all.

Open the new folder, Found the Set-up.exe file. Right clicked on that and put a check mark in run as Admin and closed it. Double clicked on Set-up.exe and the software started to install with no problems. Selected to run the software in the 30 day trial mode. Everything went fine. Rebooted. Downloaded updates. Rebooted. Software started up just fine.

So at least the copy I downloaded was not faulty.

Not sure if this download and install procedure will help.

[Guest]

Gosh dec9 you must be pretty lucky!  (Like the other 100,000 or so users who have downloaded and installed PS CS5.)

Feel a bit of pity for those with strange setups or an inability to follow instructions. They can't get it installed and have to resort to nice guys and gals in India reading their scripts.

And for those who don't know Flash from Photoshop, the Flash forum is here  >  Flash forum.

Oh yes, and Mr Cox is a Photoshop engineer not a member of the installer team who have certainly improved the product recently but obviously not enough for everyone.

[Noel Carboni]

Observer Zero wrote:

you wouldn't know that if you didn't read the whole thread. Here's my idea: why don't YOU educate YOURself.

In your case to work around your problem you used a different computer and internet connection to download the software, and regardless of your calls to India you really still have no idea what went wrong, while from what I can see Chris and the other people here figured it out in a heartbeat.  Who needs educating?

All this crying is that Adobe told you - perhaps abuptly - that your data is corrupt, and the implication you're making is that they're bad people because they didn't write their installer well enough to somehow overcome a corrupted install package, where the corruption is CLEARLY being introduced by you and your equipment.

I really hate it when people try to blame everyone else for their problems.

What would you have the installer do beyond tell you that the install couldn't be completed - magically reconstitute the data?  Maybe they should make the download twice as large so there's a redundant copy in there, just for people like you?

Maybe you should consider spending less time complaining about how people deliver the news to you that your computer and/or network are scrogged and spend the time instead to learn what better computer hardware and internet service is all about.  How much did you pay for your system, and how much is your internet bill?  I'm betting both are at the lowest possible price/service level.

Professionals understand you get what you pay for, and their setups corrupt their data FAR less often.

-Noel