"Error 1308 Source File not found" - HELP!

First, hello all-

So I decided I wanted to play Arcanum again- I got the game waaaaaaaay back when it first came out, played it extensively etc... Anyways, I had un-installed it and when I went to re-install it, I got the aforementioned error message about Vormantown.dat and Arcanum3.dat- So, much yelling and screaming would pass, and eventually I gave up.

Then, yesterday I decided maybe it would work (there's nothing noticeably wrong with my disks) on this newer computer. To no avail :x . So, the clever crustacean I am I downloaded another copy (it's not like I don't already own it). So then of course, I install the game (an hour ago) and DAMN IT, there's that error message again. As a last resort, I'm asking around this here forum if maybe someone knows what's causing this (and what can be done about it.)

 

I laughed at your name. Welcome!

I hope you get the help you need.

 

Did you fully delete the old installation before trying again? (Delete, not just uninstall). If you didn't delete it then the error could carry across to a new installation.

 

I should clarify the time-frame between the last time I've had this installed and playing- several years, and several computers ago.

But, at any rate the problem mysteriously disappeared. I uninstalled the game, and I figured I'd try re-installing it and simply adding the missing files. However, to my great surprise I got no error messages, and the game runs fine.

(well, almost fine- I've got this weird thing where sometimes when I scroll across the map it sort of goes choppy and I have to ALT-TAB to make it go away.)

I'm still curious as to what causes the error anyways...