Gems installation problem

I am having problems installing gems.

I installed ruby, then rubygems.When i try to install any gem it just
hangs..I get no response at all.
I tried the debug option and got the following messages.

C:\ruby\rubygems-0.8.8>gem install rake --debug
Exception `Errno::ENOENT' at
c:/ruby/lib/ruby/site_ruby/1.8/rubygems/config_file.rb:12 - No such
file or directory - C:\Documents and Settings\amit/.gemrc
Attempting local installation of 'rake'
Local gem file not found: rake*.gem
Attempting remote installation of 'rake'
Exception `Errno::ENOENT' at c:/ruby/lib/ruby/1.8/fileutils.rb:821 -
No such file or directory - c:/ruby/lib/ruby/gems/1.8/source_cache
Exception `EOFError' at
c:/ruby/lib/ruby/site_ruby/1.8/rubygems/remote_installer.rb:222 - End
of file reached
Updating Gem source index for: http://gems.rubyforge.org

after the last message there is no response.

I am running this on Win XP,ruby version 1.8.2 and ruby gems version 0.8.8

Please help!

Thanks,
Amit