optical drives

[Yellow Fang]

Is it possible to use an internal optical drive on one computer to install software on another? I rather regret buying a laptop without one and taking the a screwdriver to the external drive thinking it was cheap.

 

[Carwash]

Probably, unless it's the base OS you want to install. Can you share that drive over the network?

 

[Yellow Fang]

I may be able to when I get my PC back. I have a four port wired ethernet router.

 

[ColinJ]

Why not buy an external drive to plug into a USB port e.g. this?

I've got an external drive for my ultra-portable Dell. It is smaller and lighter for not having an internal drive and 99% of the time I don't need it so I leave it at home. It's there when I need it.

Oh, you already had an external one but destroyed it...

Okay, slap yourself on the wrist for being silly, and then buy a replacement external drive!

 

[twowheelsgood]

Is it possible to use an internal optical drive on one computer to install software on another? I rather regret buying a laptop without one and taking the a screwdriver to the external drive thinking it was cheap.

1. Put the disc in a machine with a CD/DVD.

2. Save an image file of the disk (easy with most CD burning software - Cd Burner XP is free and works well).

3. Copy the file on a USB stick and plug it in the other machine or network

4. Use Daemon tools (free - preferably the "lite" version) and mount the image.

5. Install as if it were a real CD/DVD

You can even jig your Windows installer CD to run off a USB drive but this requires a bit more work.

I've not missed having an optical drive on my eee pc at all, just dead weight to carry around. I've had my work notebook for 2 years and I think I've used the DVD twice. Optical drives will disappear over the next few years. Bluray is unlikely to be anywhere near as popular as DVD on the PC.

 

[Yellow Fang]

The reason I bought this refurbed 12" laptop was to use as a sort of portable netbook. The 9" netbooks are a bit too small. I thought as well that CD/DVD drives were becoming obsolete, at least for installing software. It doesn't seem to be the case though.

 

[Batzman]

Is it possible to use an internal optical drive on one computer to install software on another? I rather regret buying a laptop without one and taking the a screwdriver to the external drive thinking it was cheap.

If you're using windows, and the software isn't too fussy about having a physical DVD (e.g. office, or something) ... AND you have both computers on a network, you can just share the DVD drive from your machine that has it, and then map the drive on to the other machine.

 

[Yellow Fang]

Thanks, I will try that.