Getting a low disk space message when installing a game, but I'm not low on disk space

[E-66]

Never had this happen before.  I'm getting a "low disk space on C:" message from the installer of an old 70 MB game (AoE), and am unable to install it.  I've installed it on this PC before with zero issues.  The thing is, I don't have low disk space.  I have a 32 GB C: partition with 24 GB free as reported by Windows (Win 7 x64 on a SSD).  I've also checked disk space with other tools to make sure Windows wasn't in error, and they all report 24 GB free space on C:.

I copied a 1 GB file from another partition to C: without issue.  I deleted my Recycle Bin, and switched the page file back to a "system managed" size.  I've never gotten a low disk space message when installing any software before on any PC I've owned, so this is very confusing.  Could the installer be corrupt?  I don't suppose there's a command line I could use with the installer to prevent it checking free disk space?  Thoughts?

[D.Draker]

But 24Gb is indeed so low for windows7! It sounds more like a minimum requirement from the 90's/early 2000s. I remember I had a laptop with only 40GB (37 or so in reality) in 2002, and it seemed small even at that time. I had to copy files to CD to save space constantly.

[D.Draker]

4 hours ago, E-66 said:

message from the installer of an old 70 MB game (AoE), and am unable to install it.

Extract the installer with UniExtract and be done with it. I don't remember which is the last version, @AstroSkipper, please remind us.

[AstroSkipper]

23 minutes ago, D.Draker said:

Extract the installer with UniExtract and be done with it. I don't remember which is the last version, @AstroSkipper, please remind us.

As far as I know, the latest version is still UniExtract2 2.0.0 RC 4 Nightly (15.10.2023) from here: https://update.bioruebe.com/uniextract/files/nightly.zip

Edited February 6, 2024 by AstroSkipper

[E-66]

1 hour ago, D.Draker said:

But 24Gb is indeed so low for windows7! It sounds more like a minimum requirement from the 90's/early 2000s. I remember I had a laptop with only 40GB (37 or so in reality) in 2002, and it seemed small even at that time. I had to copy files to CD to save space constantly.

I understand your reaction, but for me it really isn't.  With Win 7 and 90% of the programs I'll ever use installed, the C: partition is still 75% free space.  I've been separating the OS from the data for over 20 years.  My user folder and Program Data are on another partition.

I'll look into UniExtract.  Thanks.

[E-66]

Update: I used Universal Extractor to extract the individual files from the game's setup file, although I wasn't sure what I was supposed to do with the extracted files since none of them had extensions and almost all of them were 1 KB in size.

Without knowing what I was doing, I ran setup again and everything installed just fine, although I have no idea what the issue was in the first place.  So I'm no less confused, but I got the result I wanted.  Thanks.

[jumper]

2^32 is 4 gigs. AoE probably saw 24.1 GB as 0.1 GB. Extracting resulted in 23.9 GB or 3.9 GB to AoE.