Netbook Question

[Surfing HalfOrc]

OK, my wife bought me one of those nifty little netbooks, and I love it!

One problem though... It doesn't come with a CD/DVD drive, and I don't know how to install any of the games I have onto it. Can I copy everything on a CD to a flash drive, and install from the flash? Or from a portable hard drive?

Specifically, I want to install Warcraft II and III, as well as a few other games. I know Warcraft III has a no-CD patch from Blizzard, so I know I can play it without the CD in a drive once I get the game installed.

Any suggestions?

[Felixaar]

I tried to do this with Spore and had no luck, but you might have better luck with with an External Harddrive - it's worth a try. You might also consider getting an External CD Drive, though they aren't particularly cheap.

I'm by no means the authority, though.

also: What've you got? Mines an Acer Aspire One.

[charl]

Isn't it allowed to download a game's CD-image and use it to install a game pirate style as long as you own a copy of the game? As wizard has released a no-CD patch and everything, you can assume they don't care about people running the game without a physical CD.

In any case, IIRC wc3 and wc2 can both be "installed" by simply copying an already-existing installation folder from one computer to another. So simply install the game on another computer, patch it, then copy its folder onto a portable memory and move it to the netbook (or you could use a a network transfer), then just click the .exe.

[Jack Squat]

Isn't it allowed to download a game's CD-image and use it to install a game pirate style as long as you own a copy of the game?

In short, yes. This is why some download areas are a "disk replacement service."

[Groundhog]

Isn't it allowed to download a game's CD-image and use it to install a game pirate style as long as you own a copy of the game? As wizard has released a no-CD patch and everything, you can assume they don't care about people running the game without a physical CD.

In any case, IIRC wc3 and wc2 can both be "installed" by simply copying an already-existing installation folder from one computer to another. So simply install the game on another computer, patch it, then copy its folder onto a portable memory and move it to the netbook (or you could use a a network transfer), then just click the .exe.

Actually, you don't even need to install it on another computer. Just put the disk into the other computer, close the installer, go into My Computer, right-click on the disk icon, and choose Explore. Then highlight all of the icons in the window that comes up, and use the copy and paste function to copy all of that to a folder on your flash drive. Then move all of that off of your flash drive and onto your netbook. Run the installer, and it will work without needing a CD or a no-CD patch. (This works for all the games that I've used, so I'll assume that it'll work for your games as well.)

[valadil]

Create a .iso image of the CD or DVD. Most CD burning software will do this for you. Copy the .iso over the network to the netbook. Install MagicDisc (http://download.cnet.com/MagicDisc/3000-7970_4-10383679.html?tag=lst-1). MagicDisc creates a virtual CD drive where you can mount .iso images. Mount the image and install your game. You can even keep the image around if you don't want to use no-cd cracks.

[GoC]

Use DAEMON tools (http://www.disc-tools.com/download/daemon) and you'll never have to worry about putting CD/DVDs in the drive again.:smallsmile:
Such a useful tool to have.

Create an ISO image first of course.

[Surfing HalfOrc]

Thanks for all the info! I'll try them tonight when I get home.

Any other suggestions?

@^ Felixaar: Yes, it's an Acer Aspire One. It rocks! Windows XP Home, Open Office (Microsoft Office 60-day free trial my ass!), Firefox and I've already DLed Avast Anti-virus for when the McAfee trial ends, plus other basic protection like Ad Aware and Spybot Search and Destroy.

I need the bigger battery pack before I take any long flights, but other than that, it's everything I need for my personal use.

[Erloas]

Being a netbook I wouldn't expect it to play too many games. At least not anything relatively new. WC2 I'm sure should be fine, WC3 is probably about all it can handle. Though I haven't seen many benchmarks for the Atom processors for even old gaming because they were never designed to do that sort of thing.

Older games just creating an ISO of the CD/DVD and copying it over should work. It might also be possible to simply share the DVD drive on your existing computer (with normal file/folder sharing options in Windows) and install the game from your main computer over the network. Might be a little slower, but it should work.

Not sure what connections you have, but if it has an eSATA port you can just temporarily connect a SATA DVD drive to the netbook and install it. There are also a number of USB to IDE and SATA adapters around that can be used to connect a normal DVD drive via a USB port. (Newegg has them starting about about $15)

Alternatively it might be worth just investing in an external DVD drive that connects via USB so you don't have to go through this with everything you might want to install on it. (Newegg has external DVD drives starting at $65)

[Lupy]

Step 1: Purchase 9 feet of copper wire

Step 2: Obtain a zippo lighter

Step 3: Using the lighter to heat the wire, bend the end into a hook roughly large enough to go around a marble.

Step 4: Use the *.iso directions above, and learn to read all the directions first!