C:\DOCUME~1\NICK~1~HHG\

This part is really standing out to me, and I believe is the actual problem. I created a "nick.HHGTTG" in my Documents and Settings folder, went to a command prompt, and couldn't figure out how to change into it using 8.3 notation.

This is a problem with not being able to get to the file when the installer is using 8.3 style file accesses.