Rick Glazier's post (clipped) <<< The question is, does the special Compaq partition need to be there, and why? >>> I do not know whether the machine is "pre" or "post" hp-compaq (to be honest I am not sure this is the correct answer.....) but it rings a bell! <<< Date: Sat, 18 Jun 2005 16:18:48 -0400 <<<From: generalstuff <[log in to unmask]> <<<Subject: Missing in OEM XP? <<< (clipped) " HP partitions the disk as HP wants instead of how the user wants. and to recover the disk space HP's "Recovery Partition E" uses up, I had to Install HP XP, delete a bunch of garbage, including Norton Anti-Virus 2002, Wild Tangent (HP admitted that they "kept costs down" by selling space on my disk to advertisers), etc., Now I'm wondering if I might have removed something that would have allowed Word to install correctly. Oddly, just yesterday, I received notification about a class-action lawsuit against HP for the "Recovery Partition" thing." HTH?-----Venkat The NOSPIN Group has added a new feature on our website, web based bulletinboard for questions and answers: Visit our sister website at http://nospin.com