Can't reinstall Office97Professional

[adalgisa]

I am trying to reinstall Office97Professional on a computer at work. I get the error message "the file S:\~mssetup.t\~msstfof.t\acmsetup.EXE is not a valid MS-Dos program file. MS Dos program files must end with the extension EXE, COM or BAT. If this isa document file, start the program used to create this file & open it from there."

The S: drive is a tape backup. I've removed the tape drive from hardware configuration, so it no longer shows in device manager. I don't know why the office setup program is looking at drive S:.

I've tried cleaning out the registry using erase97.exe from MS's website. I've tried installing Office2000Professional and uninstalling, hoping that would also delete whatever causes that error message. (Office2000Pro installed without any problem, but I need Office 97.)

Once I got as far as getting Word & Excel97 installed, but got bogged down at Access : the setup log ended with "cannot load oleaut32.dll to register type library c:\program files\microsoft office\office\office\MSACC8.OLB, error 0.

I'm looking for other suggestions. I've never done a reformat hard drive & clean install--- well, haven't since 1994, when life was different-- but I'm thinking I might have to do that. Any other ideas?
thanks!

[adalgisa]

it's fixed! I'm not sure exactly how. I made registry patches from a computer that had a working copy of Office97 Pro & that may have done the trick.