AoM Initialization Failed Error
November 30th, 2003
I mentioned last week about a problem I was having with getting Age Of Mythology to load due to an “Initialization Failed” error during the loading of the “game database” screen.
I contacted MacSoft technical support and the reason was related to a partition I had on my system that was named “Data”. Apparently this causes problems with the game and a simple name change enabled me to play successfully.
I found the problem. Rename your hard drive partition named Data to a different name (MyData) and the game will work. I will file a bug report on that one and have it fixed in an update.
Thanks,
MacSoft Technical Support
I noticed a few people came here via a search looking for the “Initialization Failed” message so hopefully this will help answer the question.


9 Comments
1. Aldin | March 9th, 2004 at 2:56 pm
How I can find this partition? Where is it?
2. Jeffrey | March 9th, 2004 at 6:47 pm
The “Data” partition should be one of the local hard drives on your desktop.
3. Mark | October 12th, 2004 at 2:52 pm
I followed your advice hoping that I could FINALLY fix my problem, because I had the EXACT same problem u are having. Anyways, I found the file named data, renamed it to my data and tried to start the game, but it didnt work. On top of that, I scrolled down to the bottom of the file list and the old data file had made a copy of itself! This only happens after I try to play the game beacause after I rename the file it the “copy” was never there. It only comes up AFTER I try to play the game. Should I delete it?
4. cinda | June 22nd, 2005 at 6:44 pm
I tried to find this data partition thing, but what and where exactly is it? Is it a folder, file…what? I reinstalled it, but that didn’t work either. Help please?
5. lee | August 1st, 2005 at 7:30 am
hi i am having exactly the same problem i have played the game for a couple of years and one day this problem popped up so i tried what you said about renaming the date folder but it just reappears like the other guys did please help me i dont know whats wrong
6. Jeffrey | August 1st, 2005 at 8:46 am
The folder is not a folder at all but an actual Hard Drive. If it’s named just “Data” then unmount it and try again or rename the Hard Drive. This can also be a Firewire/USB Hard Drive if you have one.
Also, be sure to get the latest patch at http://www.macgamefiles.com/.
7. Kevin | August 12th, 2005 at 5:21 am
plz..help can;t run it…..is the data folder inside the AOM folder i have a good comp and all but it still wont run……….
8. Jeffrey | August 12th, 2005 at 8:30 am
Read comment #6. It’s not a folder…. it’s a hard drive.
9. pat | August 20th, 2005 at 5:10 pm
i’d be so glad if could explain to me the exact procedure to rename it … i mean, how can i find this drive