HELP!!! Reinstalling apps -- install hangs on 2nd hard drive

Question

This is so bizarre. We had a major issue here with the production G5, so the suggestion was made to reinstall all the software, from the OS (10.3) to the production aps. (That's not quite the bizarre part, yet.)
We have 2 hard disks on this computer -- "Agatha" contains the production software, and "Zelda" contains all the customer files.
Agatha is the disk we wiped clean. Reinstalling the OS as well as Creative Suite went fine. But when we tried to install the 6.1 and 6.5 updates to Quark 6 (as well as the updates to Microsoft word and the whole program of Suitcase X) the installer program got hung up on "gathering information" and just spun the little ball for hours. In Suitcase, I notice that it hangs up while searching the Zelda drive -- none of this software has ever been installed on Zelda, so I don't know what it's looking for or finding there.
After about an hour on the phone with Quark Tech Support, they couldn't figure it out, and instead had me download an already-updated copy from their server. That still doesn't help us with Suitcase or the Microsoft apps, though.
Since the installer program SEEMS to be hanging up when it checks the Zelda drive (the one with the customer files), I'm wondering if there just isn't some way to make the system NOT SEE this drive???
Quark had us do all the usual tries: fixing permissions, logging in as root user, renaming folders.
I'm completely at a loss as to what's happening here and why we can't reinstall software that we had NO problem installing when we first bought it. I'm also worried that since it seems the installer or updater programs are the problem, that even if we upgrade to OS x.4 and Quark 7 (which I'm planning to do soon) that we won't be ABLE to update, since the updater program hangs.
Suggestions, PLEASE !

Answer 1

Hi, Amanda. I have no experience installing the programs you mention, and I may be well off the mark here. So if what I'm about to say seems off base, that's entirely possible — don't lose any sleep if you can't make it add up.
The application installers you're trying to run may be programmed to install items in the Application Support folder of the user account to which you've logged in before running the installers. If your Users folder isn't on the startup drive you're booted to, that's likely to cause problems. Are you booting to Agatha, and have you moved your Users folder to Zelda? I ask this because you say "'Zelda' contains all the customer files," and I'm not sure precisely what you mean by "customer files".
If "customer files" means only data files that you've created in your various applications, which would ordinarily be filed by default inside the Documents folder of the user account you normally log into, but which can just as well be stored elsewhere at your option, then that should pose no problem at all for the installers. But if "customer files" implies that you have different user accounts for different customers, and those account folders don't reside on the startup drive, then I suspect that's the cause of your trouble.