Office 2003 Trial - Fatal error during installation -

While using Xp Pro, logged on as admin downloaded trial of Office 2003. It
extracts some files and fails then giving only a message "Fatal error during
uninstall"

Attempted and failed soultions
There is an article in technet suggesting using the windows uninstaller to
remove Office 2000. Tried that rebooted, faled. Reinstalled and removed
office 2000 with CD, reboot. Office 2003 failed again.

Tried stopping antivirus.

tried stopping other unnessecary apps, and services

Created another admin account, - install failed

Ran the compatws security template, reboot, install faled.

Downloaded second copy of Office 2003 trial, failed again.

No mention of any errors in the event logs.

Sneeking suspicion that the problem may be Windows XP automatically
installed on drive H, did not give a choice. But surely Office 2003 is not
that silly to only look for the C drive.

So no event logs, no error logs, no leads and tried everything I could think
of. Is this a Dud package or is it because of some remenicance of Office 2000
in the registry or so.

Help wanted from tech experts....