Hi folks, Just bought a laptop without an optical. I need to install a couple of things from DVD. Is it possible to do it over the network to my Desktop? Or can I copy the ISO to a flash drive? guess that wouldn't work for games though Cheers
Anything that is on a DVD you can put on a flashdrive, just extract the ISO for games or copy DVD contents to flash drive on a PC with an optical drive, might have to find a no-cd crack for them though For installing Windows just use Microsofts USB tool http://www.microsoftstore.com/store/msusa/html/pbPage.Help_Win7_usbdvd_dwnTool Or another good one called "Rufus" http://rufus.akeo.ie/
I will try that. These ones are just printer drivers and stuff so I guess straight forward. I didn't even think of DVD games needing their disk in! guess I'd better stick to downloads. That's a pain DVD versions are often cheaper it seems. Can it be done over network though? Might be easier if it's possible.
Yea you could install over the network, set up folder sharing on one machine for the Laptop to see, then browse the shared files and either copy them to the laptop or install over the network, which would also copy to temp on the laptop anyway so you might as well copy them to start with Just a normal network share would work for files, if you wanted to install Windows over the network, that's a completely different ball game and not so simple, Id advise the USB method for that
Thanks I'll try that too. It's not for windows just a few printer and game controller drivers that I can probably down load anyway. But its good to know my options Thx all
If its just for drivers then USB will be the easiest, but yea network will work too, so long as your network drivers on the laptop are installed and working fine first
anything can be done over a network. I have around 10-20 devices in my home at any one time and only 1 computer has a optical drive in it. Just make a shared folder available somewhere on the network and any device that can see that share can send and receive stuff to that share. providing you have sharing and ntfs permissions correct. to install windows on a machine currently running(not a fresh build with nothing on it yet) as long as the OS is windows 7 and above if you simply navigate to the install.exe or whatever its called on the .iso or actual disk accessed through the network and execute it that will work as well and there is no issues either as windows 7 and up load files to a ramdisk and install from a seperate environment after rebooting. for example i had 5 computers running xp and vista on them and i wanted to bump them all up to windows 7 as i had spare keys so i just popped a disc into one machine and ran the .exe through the network and it worked without a hitch. This method while i admit being pretty lazy can also be used to install the same version of windows onto many computers all with different hardware in them at one time. :infinity:
As far as installing an OS goes you can create a bootable flash drive and install it from there I have seen it done before. Heck a network install is possible. As far as games go You could get a usb optical drive and play your disc based games that way.
Thanks guys, I made an ISO of the printer driver for a flash drive. But will definitely look at sharing the optical across the network. I'm sure I'll need to do this at some point for games on DVDs or something. Good to know it'll work. Cheers
PS nice that Win 8 can mount ISOs Got it on my new Laptop. Now I've set it up to be always on desktop I'm coming round to liking it
