Mike, did you ever get it figured out?
BTW - I don't understand why so many people have trouble with the EPC. The only version I ever had to use virtual drives to make it work (or leave both discs in two physical drives) was the Feb-00 version, which IMO was screwed up. Both the Sep-01 and Aug-02 versions work fine when copied to hard drive, and I've installed them both on probably a half-dozen different machines (with W2K Pro) with absolutely no problems at all. I suspect it may conflict with other software, I wonder if that's part of the problem (I was installing on relatively newer/clean systems). Very weird.
Fisherman does have a good point - the EPC is picky about the OS. W2K and XP Pro are your best bets. XP Home may require virtual drives. And so far I don't think anyone has gotten the Aug-02 to run on 9x/ME, but numerous people have made the Feb-00 and Sep-01 versions work on 9x/ME with either virtual drives or both discs in the drive. I strongly recommend using W2K if at all possible. Can't figure out why Mike's install on W2K was so difficult...!