please help

first of all, my comp is as follows

EPoX 8KHA+ (brand new)
Soundblaster Audigy platinum (brand new)
cheap 3com NIC c905 (brand new)
AMD Athlon XP 1.53 (new)
256mb PC2100
Pioneer slot DVD
MSI GeForce3
300W enermax PSU
Maxtor 60GB 7200rpm HD
Sony Multiscan G400
Logitech iFeel mouse
I think thats about it, except for the ones that say they're new all parts are two months old.

My 60GB HD is split to three partitions. An 8GB C: which I put windows and small apps like ICQ on. A 32GB d: which I put games and larger apps like photoshop and also store anything I DL, such as winrar, winamp. Finally a 20GB E: which just has mp3's and is sometimes shared over a network, I live in a dorm.
My problem is....
all my apps on the D: that I need to install on the C: like winrar, CDex, ICQ do not work. There are a few different error messages. Winrar says "The archive is either in unknown format or damaged". CDex, just says it performed an illegal op. ICQ works, as does AIM. I tried to DL newer versions and I still get the same messages. Furthermore my audigy is not installed properly b/c something interrupted the installation and when I try to uninstall it so I can set it up again a window pops up that says... checkos has permormed an illegal op although creative installer does appear in the task manager after that, and if I try to uninstall again it will appear twice.
Other programs in task manager running right now are... EAX, explorer, systray and this IE window. Any help would be greatly appreciated

Almost forgot, I'm running 98se, which I installed about 4 hours ago

<P ID="edit"><FONT SIZE=-1><EM>Edited by JSKeaney on 12/05/01 06:45 PM.</EM></FONT></P>

The only things on the C are drivers and windows, and none of my drives are shared right now