If it is still available in Australia, I would suggest buying a new one, then. There are always options such as Ebay, amazon, etc. Hope to see you back soon.
Hype
Retired A very big thanks to Dark Oddity who put my signature pic together
I broke my original freelancer disk so I bought a new one from Amazon.com, I had the disk in two days, no problems what so ever. I highly recommend Amazon.Com. That and it is only $8.95 USD on amazon.
Unfortunately Amazon won't sell software to us here in the "colonies". (unless they have changed the rules in last twelve months.)
I know it was impossible to find FL in the stores. I tried like every EB in Brisbane (five of them), plus a bunch of other places. FL is now in the "budget" titles, and no one has it anywhere. Even gamesmarket.com.au lists it unavailable. (Finally my boss gave me his copy, what a guy :)
If the disk has screwed up I believe Microsoft will replace it for a nominal fee. Failing that, yeah just get a torrent copy. Normally I wouldn't suggest such a thing.... but how can it be piracy if you have already purchased the game. Why should you be punished because of the crappy media the things distributed on? As long as you keep your original disk with the serial # on it.
EDIT: Ok it seems Amazon will ship to Aus now. Used disks start from US$8.95, new ones up to $18.... not that great IMO.
(If you find any mistake in my English, please let me know via a PM)
(Really, I speak terrible English, so please, tell me if I make mistakes. I'd like to improve it a bit )
I had this problem a while ago. Whenever I began loading FL, it crashed, just before it got to the main menu. I reinstalled it, and the problem was fixed.