Ok, I'm pretty experienced with DOSBox, so i'm going to give instructions for that, also keep in mind that i've only read through about half of the first page of replies.
If you're not using dosbox, i recommend you do.
***Please note***
According to the DosBox wiki...
"Does it work ?
Yes, DOSBox works in both Vista 32 bit and Vista 64 bit.
CD-ROM support
This is currently still in development. 95% of the functions work in 0.73, but if it doesn't work then the best thing you can do is to make an image of your CD-ROM and IMGMOUNT that."
DosBox, to be used effectively should have a high degree of organization to relieve a lot of stress.
I'm also going to give instructions a certain way and give further instructions assuming that you are setting up as i do...keep that in mind that if you want to change a step for any reason you will have to make the appropriate changes to further steps.
I'm also assuming that you have Daggerfall on CD by your post.
Lastly, I'm going to assume that your CD/DVD Rom drive is assigned the drive letter D (D:\) you will need to make the appropriate changes according to your drive setup.
1. First thing you should do is create a folder to represent your dos machine's C drive
In windows, navigate to the root of your C:\ and create a folder named DOSGAMES
2. DOSBox has a configuration file called dosbox.conf, it is editable with notepad. You don't want to have to mount your drives every time you start dosbox. Find and open this file and then scroll down to the very bottom where you should see something like [AUTOEXEC] or something like that. This section will run commands put underneath it automatically every time you start dosbox, you can even make several conf files and create dosbox shortcuts in windows for each seperate game with different parameters so that it will automatically mount your drives and execute that game and emulate the correct hardware...but that is way outside the scope of this post.
In your dosbox.conf file under the [autoexec] section (since last mentioning it i've downloaded and installed dosbox so i would get this right), type in the following commands exactly as shown (change drive letter where necessary):
mount c c:\dosgames
mount d d:\ -t cdrom
c:
cls
Now when you start dosbox, you won't see the typical startup screen for dosbox but a clear screen showing a c:\ prompt and your "dosgames" folder will be mapped as that c:, your cd/dvd rom will also be mapped in dosbox as your d:\
(if, in windows, your cd/dvd rom drive is the f:\ instead for instance you would want to type in the command: 'mount d f:\ -t cdrom' instead though in dosbox the cdrom will be the d:\)
Basically at this point, you're kind of on your own...some experience installing games back in the dos days will really help you out here. But i'll take a crack at explaining it though keep in mind that i do not know the directory structure of the daggerfall cd.
You will need to know how to navigate folders in dos to start with...the important commands are as follows:
CD = Change Directory:
if you are in your c:\ and would like to go into a folder called "daggfall", you would want to type CD DAGGFALL and the c:\> prompt will then change to a c:\daggfall> prompt
DIR = Directory:
This will list all files and folders in the directory that you are currently in (folders will be shown in square brackets). Lets say that in the c:\ you have folders containing the games Cannon Fodder and Battle Chess, you are also in the c:\, you type in DIR and hit enter and it will show some directory information and underneath something much like:
[CANNON]
[BTLCHESS]
you would then know that you have the options to type in CD CANNON or CD BTLCHSS to navigate into either of those folders.
If you ever want to move back a directory, just type 'CD..' and it will bring you up a directory, if you ever want to go to the root of the drive you are in just type CD C:\ (or the drive letter of the drive you are in.
Ok, now back to getting the game installed.
Make sure the daggerfall cd is in your cdrom drive, type "D:" and the c prompt will change to a d prompt. You are now going to have to navigate the folders using the DIR and CD commands and you want to find a file called SETUP or INSTALL or something of the sort. Usually this will copy files into the directory of your choosing (choose something like c:\daggfall if you are given the option of choosing where...always remember that DOS has an 8 character limit to file/folder names). You will also likely be prompted to set up sound and music. Select SoundBlaster as your sound card. I believe the settings are IRQ 5 or 7, address 220 and DMA 1.
After that you should only have to navigate back to the c:\ and then into the folder the game is in. Trick now is finding the executable file and just typing that in to the prompt.
Remember DIR is the DOS equivalent to google.
I hope this helps
i suggest re-downloading the whole archive, yours might have got corrupted while transferring.