I've recently obtained original floppy disk with Cyber Empires (as well as some simple floppy disk drive for USB).

After long and tedious process to copy data from the floppy (old formatting system etc), I can't install the game.

There are two files:

CYBINST.EXE
INSTALL.EXE

When I'm trying to launch CYBINST.EXE, I've got an error:
: - error in ZIP use PKZZipFix

When I'm trying to launch the second file, the dosbox simply stops responding.

I've tried with mounting floppy disk (virtual) to dosbox with floppy disk content, but no luck.

Would be grateful for help in resolving this issue.

Maybe the floppy contains errors. It shouldn't take that long to copy to hdd...

Problem wasn't about long copying, but rather possibility to copy at all - due to old format of data (short story - for windows xp I've found solution with alternate Floppy Disk Driver, but I couldn't find any active link with this driver, not to mention about equivalent for newer systems). Hence constant errors about "not correct formatting" etc, and necessity to use some software to "restore" data from FDD. Fortunately, I've found something to make copy of all files.

I could see both files and their size on fdd, and comparing to size of files on floppy disk it should be fine,

So I have hope that it's not about wrong data on FDD itself (it's set in "read only" from the beginning, so in theory system shouldn't mess with it in any way).

I meant physical errors on the floppy. Back in the day, DOS would mention it and stop copying...
(You can't (always) just see that by the size of the files)
It happened enough for me; safely stored floppies that got corrupted - for apparently no reason.

Oh my, if it's true then I've got probably small chances to use it at all. I've used the BadCopy Pro to "restore" the data (in fact to copy both files on hard drive) and it seemed to work fine, any way I can check if floppy disk is indeed corrupted (preferably under windows 8, alternatively on windows xp)?

I still replay that game so I know it works fine under DOSBox. It's possible that the disc is corrupted after all these years (magnetic fields weakened). When the game is installed, I see about 148 files that adds up to about 1.45MB, most ending in .MAP and .GIF and you start the game with CYBER.COM. Do you see any of these files or are they packed up and you literally can't install them due to a "bad zip"? Given that you legally own the game then if it does turn out to be a corrupted disk quite honestly I don't think anyone will blame you for 're-aquiring' the unpacked files from certain 'archival' sites.

What I've done with my entire DOS collection is install the lot to C:\Games\DOS, pre-configure them with .conf DOSBox files, icons and shortcut links, and then zip the whole lot up. "Reinstalling" in future is then as simple as unzipping to same location to literally "reinstall" the lot (hundreds of them) all in one go without needing to go through manual per-game installation & configuration procedures.

I've checked with mobygames before buying and it looks exactly like official US release (one floppy disk with blue label). Today it came to me and I've checked again but it seems like 100% official and legal.

I can't install it at all, because I've got only those two files (CYBINST.EXE - 1056 KB and INSTALL.EXE - 16 KB), when I'm using first one - there is only error I've quoted. Second one is making entire dosbox "freezing".

I wish I could somehow obtain both those files from other disk, to compare if it would behave in the same way or not. Sadly, I have only those (let's say that I've taken a look to "some websites", but everywhere there is already "installed" version of the game.

I don't even have the original installers because the same thing happened to my discs (become unreadable after nearly 30 years), and as mentioned the first thing I did was zip up my whole collection rather than rely on USB floppy drives. As you said there's only the "already installed" version (994kb zip file) easily available (and on the first page of Google search results starting with myabandon...), but it works perfectly fine, is "clean" and contains all the original files.

Just unzip the zip file to say C:\Games\DOS\CyberEmp (or wherever). If you know how to manually use / mount folders in DOSBox or use a DOSBox launcher like DFend, just use that. If you want a GOG-style direct Windows Start Menu shortcut link, you simply need to create a DOSBox cyberemp.conf file that includes the lines:-

mount c c:\Games\DOS\CyberEmp
c:
cyber.com

And then a direct Windows shortcut like:-
"C:\Program Files (x86)\DOSBox\DOSBox.exe" -conf C:\Games\DOS\CyberEmp\cyberemp.conf -noconsole -exit

The "already installed" version works absolutely fine though and if your disc is corrupted then it's probably the only realistic way you can regain your original files back. You bought the disc and have it in your possession as proof of ownership, so don't feel guilty about restoring what you already legally own and have a valid license to play from DOS preservation sites. As much as I love GOG, there are so many great games like CE not here, plus even some that are have had their original .EXE's removed by GOG (simply because they can run in ScummVM), whereas sites like MA are a blessing for actually preserving old games "as they were" in simple zip files.

Floppy disk came to me today, so I didn't had any chance to make copy "earlier".

I know how to deal with versions from internet, I wanted to learn if (and how) I can "save" the content from floppy disk I own.

Appareantly, it's not possible. I've made test on second computer, this time installing directly from floppy disk. Result was a list of "Warning! Can't open.." and names of files which would be installed. So appareantly, disk is not functional (despite description made by seller that disk is fine).

Bad luck. I wish it could be available in digital distribution instead of dealing with those old formats and their issues.

Floppy disks tend to last 5 - 20 years depending on environment. 20 years is probably pushing it - given that cyber empires is from 1992 I would automatically assume any original copy has gone bad by now.

Seller mentioned that floppy disk was fully functional (although I'm aware of limited lifespan of floppy disks).

Anyway, I guess that there is not too much I can do with my floppy disk with the game. I've tried with software to recover data from "broken" FD, but it seems that even after recovering files are still corrupted.

I would be very surprised if 25-30 years old floppy disks would still be fully functional today, with all their magnetic data intact. Floppy disks simply were not designed to retain their data that long, flimsy and delicate magnetic media that they are.

EDIT: ok ok ninja'ed.

Fortunately, whole case has happy end - turns out that seller before shipping was testing floppy and even made a copy of files from disk, so after small e-mail exchange he provided me both files, and (no surprise here) installation and game are working flawlessly under DosBox.

I'll just keep the floppy disk as "trophy" and will use those copied files - overall I'm happy that it ended well.

BTW - appareantly owner was keeping floppy in very good conditions, since it was still working in his home before shipping . Alas, old media are expiring in alarming rate nowadays. Well, at least some types.

Good to hear that you've got things sorted, Martius. If the data on the floppy disc is corrupted from ageing weak magnetic fields but you have a working floppy drive, and you now have all the good installer files on your HDD, aside from making a zip file backup, why not "refresh" the disc itself (place a piece of sticky tape over the write protect hole, delete the files, then copy the good ones back then remove the tape, and see if that fixes the disc readability issues itself).