Software question

As we all know the m11x is without a optical drive. Well i was wondering if i would somehow copy software that already exists on one of my other computers to my m11x. my other software are on cds and i was wondering if i could copy them to a flash drive then copy those files to my m11x, would it work? I know there are a lot of computer gurus out there, so please do not mock my less than weak question.

 

You would have to "rip" the CDs data and copy it to a flashdrive. The means of doing so I do not remember how todo. I have not actually needed a CD for a couple of year But its a start.

 

And you may need "Daemon Tools Lite" ( Home page :: DAEMON-Tools.cc) which allows you to mount a directory containing a cd image and emulate a drive. This is a free utility although a professional version is available for a price.

 

Actually depends on the program, some games (especially older MMOs like EverQuest) can easily just be copied. But many programs don't work properly if not installed.

As an FYI I at first thought the OP's handle was Manos as in Manos Hands of Fate.

 

Your question doesn't make it clear if you are talking about copying a disc or an installed program, so I'll answer both.

You usually can't just copy over an installed program because there are bits and piece of it all over on your computer with lots of installation-specific settings. You can find guides for making "portable" versions of some programs but most will need to be installed as if from the original media.

You can make a file that is a complete copy of a disc. This is called a "CD image." To use it without a disc drive, you usually have to mount it to a virtual, emulated disc drive. Someone else already mentioned Daemon-Tools, which has been the best virtual drive since it was introduced. There are also alternatives, like Virtual Clone Drive, Alcohol 120%, and whatever Nero calls their virtual disc drive.

Now, a lot of software, especially games, expect the disc to be in the drive to run after installation for copy protection. A pirate never has to worry about this but we pay for our games here and expect to at least be able to play them on our perfectly-capable computer just the same. There are downloadable CD/disc cracks for most games that are illegal or gray-area in most regions but, as long as you own the game, there is nothing morally wrong with using them. Obviously, you are on your own for finding and using them. Obviously, the administrators of these forums can not allow discussion of it, even if it is morally OK.

Anything you do yourself from the original software is considered legal despite the license agreement as long as you do not distribute modified software, so I will touch on that. For example, Apple can't tell you that you can't Jailbreak iOS4, as much as they want to. Often, you can use the disc image you made with Daemon-Tools but many games specifically try to detect a virtual drive and disable themselves when they detect one, often-times even if you are using a real disc in a real drive. Even if mounting the disc image in the virtual drive works, disc images are often HUGE and, thus, the space the software takes when installed can be more than doubled unless you delete the image and find an alternative way to run the software. Mini-images are CD images that only contain the data checked by the software when executing, so you can sometimes use one of those to pass the disc check. Downloading them is just as illegal as downloading a CD image (as opposed to making one yourself legally), but you can sometimes make your own by following guides or using software like SlySoft's GameJackal.

Honestly, I just buy all my games from Steam, most of which are cheap enough to repurchase and much easier to update.