Oracle Database Discussions

I am a student in an Oracle 10g SQL class.
We are using the Oracle 10g SQL book by Joan Casteel.
The book comes with CD's for installing Oracle Database 10g.
I'm trying to install on my Windows Media Center with SP3 laptop.
When I tried the install the first time the pre-req checker said I needed the Microsoft Loopback Adapter.
So I configured that. Then I started the install from scratch.
This time the pre-req checker detected zero problems with my system.
I selected the Personal Edition for installation.
The install started. But now seems to be hung. The progress bar is at 2%.
The description says 'Extracting files to 'F:\oracle\product\10.2.0\db_1'.
When I do a Ctrl-Alt-Del to bring up Windows Task Manager the 'Oracle Universal Install: Install' task is listed as 'Running'.
I can't detect any activity from my CD drive.
The F drive is a Western Digital USB hard drive. I've had no problems with that drive.
The last few lines from the log file that is referenced on the Install window are these:

INFO: Number of threads for fast copy :1
INFO: FastCopy : The component info is ignored :oracle.swd.jre:1.4.2.8.0
INFO: FastCopy : The component info is ignored :oracle.swd.jre:1.4.2.8.0
INFO: FastCopy : The component info is ignored :oracle.swd.jre:1.4.2.8.0

There is one 'err' file in that same directory that has text in it. The complete file is this:

java.util.zip.ZipException: invalid stored block lengths
at java.util.zip.InflaterInputStream.read(Unknown Source)
at java.util.zip.ZipInputStream.read(Unknown Source)
at java.io.FilterInputStream.read(Unknown Source)
at oracle.sysman.oii.oiix.OiixFileOps.copyStream(OiixFileOps.java:1421)
at oracle.sysman.oii.oiij.OiijFastJarExtracter.copyFileFromJar(OiijFastJarExtracter.java:258)
at oracle.sysman.oii.oiij.OiijFastJarExtracter.copyJarContents(OiijFastJarExtracter.java:194)
at oracle.sysman.oii.oiij.OiijFastJarExtracter.extract(OiijFastJarExtracter.java:143)
at oracle.sysman.oii.oiij.OiijJarExtractQueue$OiijJarExtractWorker.run(OiijJarExtractQueue.java:341)

Any advice would be greatly appreciated. I'd really like to have the Oracle database available on my pc.

Thanks.