Sims 3 StartDisk issue! [SOLVED]

Hey i downloaded games4theworld Sims 3 and read the install guide where it says i need to mount the "sims 3 StartDisk" so i try to do that. I try to open it from WinRAR and it gets to 7% opening and then freezes and said it can't be opened due to an I/O device error. So i tried extracting it, same problem! The other ISO file is fine, it can be extracted and opened but the StartDisk can't and i can't play the game without it! I've gone through tons of threads and read the instructions and i can't seem to find a fix for my problem.

Any help would be really appreciated, thanks in advance

First of all, have you extracted the .rar to a blank folder before mounting?

What mounting application did you use to mount the .iso?

That's part of the problem, it won't let me extract the file. The other files in the .rar are fine but there seems to be something wrong with the startdisk that won't allow me to extract or mount it 
I'm using Deamon tools to mount it, i've used them in the past and they always work fine so i don't know what the problem is now :/
Do you think if i re downloaded it and then tried to see if i can get the ISO to work from the other download?

Can you try the following:

Extract the files to a blank folder. Before re-extracting, check the box "Keep Broken Files" in the panel.

Please let us know the result and good luck!

yeah the problem is i don't even get that as an option, i try to put it into a blank folder and it just says that it can't because of an I/O device error. I can't even extract the file

powertothepickle wrote:yeah the problem is i don't even get that as an option, i try to put it into a blank folder and it just says that it can't because of an I/O device error. I can't even extract the file

Is the .rar of the base game on an external drive?

No it wasn't on an external drive, thts what i found so odd about this problem?
but after ages of it not working i deleted it, re downloaded it and followed the instructions again, but this time it worked. i mean at first i though i must've previously skipped a step, except i know i didn't?
either way to make my ego feel better i'm calling it a dodgy download and moving on. Really happy with the game and thanks for your help in getting it working

Hello there,

I guess you guys were just doing it the hard way.
All you need to do is extract the whole .rar file itself (Not the .ISO files in the .rar file, which you're referring to!) and then mount both the "Disk 1" and the "Start Disk". If you don't know how to mount, try our free Mounting Guide on www.games4theworld.org > Downloads > Guides for future reference.

Glad to hear it's all working fine now though. If you run into more issues, please let us know!