Guild Wars 2

I have only been able to download the Gw2Setup.exe from the GW2 site. When I run the file, the only thing that happens is a box pops up saying it is “Unable to open archive file” and that it can’t access local.dat.

It doesn’t even begin to install, and I haven’t had the game installed on this computer before, so I don’t think this file even exists yet.

Of course I’ve tried deleting and redownloading, restarting the computer, running as admin, moving the file to my desktop, moving the file to my documents, even moving the file to an external HD.

I’m really hoping someone can help and that’s it’s just something simple I’m overlooking. :\

Try the beta installer. It should download the same file.
http://cloudfront.guildwars2.com/client/Gw2.exe

Same message came up using that file.

I Google’d a bit around and found this:

I was struggling with this issue as well. I was about to re-download, when I upgraded my video card drivers. I use ATI, and I updated to 2.4. Running on Windows 7 64-bit. Works fine now. I hope this helps someone.

If you haven’t updated your GFX drivers, try that out. i think it’s the same with Nvidia cards.

Sorry I forgot to mention that I updated them this morning and have restarted a few times since then. I appreciate the responses though!

Hmm okay. I found some solutions from different users.

The problem was that the GW2 installer is trying to install and locate files in the wrong directory. The file “Local.dat” is installed by default to “C:\Users\<User>\Documents\Guild Wars 2”, however, this causes problem because my “Documents” directory has been moved to a different directory, “X:\<User>\My Documents”. For a quick fix, I simply change my “Documents” directory back to the default location. After the install, hopefully the game functions and I can change my “Documents” directory back to my preferred “X:\” drive location.

and this

In case anyone else gets the same error I did, I was able to get back in the game by right-clicking the desktop shortcut for guild wars, selecting “run as” and then un-clicking the option “run this program with restricted access” and then running it with the administrator account.

As a last thing. Go to your registry and delete everything that has the tag: Guild Wars and ArenaNet. Maybe that’ll work for you.

Are you installing into Program Files? If so, disable UAC or you’ve got to explicitly choose to Run As Administrator.

I recommend you install into, for example. c:\games instead, or explicitly go give your user full permissions to the directory you are installing into if you’ve got Pro or higher Windows. (security options are absent in Home)

draeath.8536:

Are you installing into Program Files? If so, disable UAC or you’ve got to explicitly choose to Run As Administrator.

I recommend you install into, for example. c:\games instead, or explicitly go give your user full permissions to the directory you are installing into if you’ve got Pro or higher Windows. (security options are absent in Home)

I’m not even getting far enough to choose a location. I run the file, and 2-5 seconds later the box up saying it can’t access the archive file.

Note: Here’s a screenshot. That’s literally the only thing that pops up. For both of the .exe files I’ve tried. I’ve also gone through and given myself ownership and full access of both Program Files and Program Files (x86) and Users which contains the default My Documents location.

That’s weird. Do you have UAC enabled? Can you try running the installer as administrator or temporarily disabling UAC to see if that helps?

I don’t have any UAC enabled and I have tried it both normal double clicking, and right click “run as administrator”.

I tried switching my default “my documents” to C:\GuildWars2 (a folder I made), and removing the default one. No help. Restored to default. No help. Didn’t find any guild wars or arenanet entries in the regedit.

Still appreciate all the help guys. I’ve got a ticket in with support but I’m sure they’re overwhelmed right now. The one response I got was a default response that didn’t even address any installation issues. :\

I had a Local.Dat corruption issue. Deleting that file fixed the problem. On Win 7 it’s in a different location from where your GW2 is… something like Documents/Guild Wars 2/Local.dat iirc.

(You can rename it as well.)

VOLKON.1290:

I had a Local.Dat corruption issue. Deleting that file fixed the problem. On Win 7 it’s in a different location from where your GW2 is… something like Documents/Guild Wars 2/Local.dat iirc.

(You can rename it as well.)

The problem is the game hasn’t even been installed. It hasn’t created any files. There is no Guild Wars 2 folder anywhere on my computer (I did make a C:\GuildWars2 to test but I deleted it now since it didn’t help). There’s also no local.dat file.

It’s not part of the game itself but the launcher. When you first run it it downloads the file, so it may have gotten messed up as VOLKON states.

Which Windows version do you have? Or you could just do a filesystem search for a local.dat – there shouldn’t be too many of these but make sure it’s not for something else prior to removing it

Even still I’d recommend renaming it first, just in case it IS for something else (local.dat is a pretty generic filename)

draeath.8536:

It’s not part of the game itself but the launcher. When you first run it it downloads the file, so it may have gotten messed up as VOLKON states.

Which Windows version do you have? Or you could just do a filesystem search for a local.dat – there shouldn’t be too many of these but make sure it’s not for something else prior to removing it

Even still I’d recommend renaming it first, just in case it IS for something else (local.dat is a pretty generic filename)

I did a search for local.dat again, nothing found by that name anywhere on my C:\.

Edit: I have Windows 7 Home Premium.

Also having the same problem. Trying suggested solutions did not help

Same problem. Tried all of the above. Also sent in support ticket. My only difference is that I have been playing the game for 3 weeks. Then I try and log on today and I get that Unable to Open Archive message.

Still haven’t been able to install GW2 on my main computer because of this. My ticket has been open since August 30th. I’ve gotten one automated response. Yesterday they closed my ticket without even saying a word to me. I had to reopen it today. I’m really unhappy at this point.

Here it is. Thanks for the response. I hope you can help me.

I’m having the exact same issue. I also submitted a ticket a week and a half ago, but I’m actually getting replies every couple of days from different people. I’ve submitted a Game Advisor log as well. If I happen to get anywhere, I’ll post it here.

Still zero help. I can’t believe this. Not even ONE suggestion from tech support. I know they’re busy but come on, my problem has to have come up to the top of the list at some point in the last 2 weeks.

Well I’m getting absolutely nowhere with my ticket, either. The last three replies I’ve received have all told me to delete any GW2 related files from my computer, even though I’ve stated many times that I’m not getting far enough to have any additional files be created/downloaded. Disabling any non-Microsoft services didn’t help, either. I’ve submitted two different Game Advisor logs (one with and one without the extra services running), so I guess I play the waiting game once more. . .

I was able to get mine working. There is another thread in this forum that deals with this same error message that helped me out. I used to have my “My Documents” folder located on my server (I reformatted a lot for a while). Apparently there are still some rogue pointers to the now non-existent “Z:\” drive. So I plugged in a USB drive and mapped it to Z:\ and fired up Gw2Setup.exe, and it went without a hitch! Not sure if this will help you at all, but I said I’d update if I got anywhere. Good luck!

Hey. I just ran into this issue myself and spent an hour or so doing everything this thread and other threads have said. Finally, for me anyway, I figured out what works. I use a cloud back up service and I had it backing up the Documents folder in the C drive. I removed the Documents folder from the folders list that the program backs up and voila! it worked. I hope this helps.

Hi all,
I just received this error this morning and what helped me was right clicking the Gw2.exe icon and selecting “Run as Administrator.” It took a couple of seconds to load, but I was able to bypass the error.

Hope this helps
~Rinta

I got the problem today – I logged out for an hour, and then I kept getting the pop-up message when I tried to start GW2 again, even with “run as administrator.” Things were slightly strange when I logged out, I’d reached a vista point but couldn’t trigger the video, so I thought rejoining the game in that spot, high on a mountain, might put that minor glitch right. Shortly after switching off the “personal cloud backup” Seagate external hard drive however, things were back to normal – and I got the Nentor Valley vista in the bag too. Fingers crossed it was a one-off problem…

Just had the same problem.
New computer, ran windows 8. I installed GW2, let it do all its downloads. Before I actually played the game, I updated to Windows 10 and got this error. Apparently the GeForce Experience program that was installed wasn’t compatible with windows 10, so it couldn’t update my drivers. I uninstalled it, downloaded the latest version from the nvidia website, made it update my drivers. There we go, GW2 working again!

So, cut short: updating my drivers did the trick for me!