Getting repair error message "installation source not available"?

[emd]

Outlook 2003 is not responding, and in attempting to repair - either directly
from Help Menu or with Office Professional 2003 through Control Panel, I get
an error message "The installation Source for this product is not available."
Even with installation disk in CD-ROM drive, cannot go further on, and
cannot uninstall. Any suggestions?

 

[neo [mvp outlook]]

The Local Installation Source folder may be corrupt. The folder name is
MSOCache and it is a hidden/system folder at the root of your hard drive
(e.g. C:\MSOCache).

If my suspicions are right, then you can use the LIS Tool (download link
below) to "cleanup" whatever is messed up. Once done, you should be able to
complete a repair using the CD.

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/...A3-695B-42C3-9045-B812BA0FED3E&displaylang=en

By the way, once you "cleanup" the problem with the tool, you may be
prompted to always supply your CD when it comes time to patching Office
2003.

/neo

PS - Everytime I have used this tool, I always uninstall/reinstall Office
because I want the MSOCache folder in good health so repairs and patching
goes smoothly w/out any prompts for the installation media.

 

[emd]

This is very helpful to learn. Thank you. However, after installing and
running the tool, I tried to uninstall/reinstall through Control Panel, and
unfortunately ran into the identical error message that I had started with.
Same if I try to detect and repair, BUT... Outlook now seems to be
functioning better than before the exercise started, and we shall see.
Didn't completely solve the problem, at least not yet, but did effect some
improvement.