Geek question

[Taem]

Alright, so I bought my sons two computers from a friend, both decent for the price I paid, however these computers have CD-ROM's, not DVD-ROM drives. There is no room to expand, but even if I could, I don't want to buy any more "stuff" if I don't have too. Both computers have Windows XP and the latest patch.

So my wife's computer is running Windows Vista. All of our computers on on the same network. I read an article about sharing a DVD drive over the network, so I enabled her drive for sharing and it worked! I could install the video game my son had been grilling me about on his computer! The catch? It would NOT play - it kept saying, "insert disc into drive". Humm, well the disc is in the drive it was installed with, but the game does not see it on the network, or if it does, perhaps it is an administrative issue?

Any ideas how to get this to work?

[--Pete]

Hi,

Alright, so I bought my sons two computers from a friend, both decent for the price I paid, however these computers have CD-ROM's, not DVD-ROM drives. There is no room to expand, but even if I could, I don't want to buy any more "stuff" if I don't have too. Both computers have Windows XP and the latest patch.

So my wife's computer is running Windows Vista. All of our computers on on the same network. I read an article about sharing a DVD drive over the network, so I enabled her drive for sharing and it worked! I could install the video game my son had been grilling me about on his computer! The catch? It would NOT play - it kept saying, "insert disc into drive". Humm, well the disc is in the drive it was installed with, but the game does not see it on the network, or if it does, perhaps it is an administrative issue?

Any ideas how to get this to work?

Two ideas.

First, try mapping the DVD drive onto your son's computer. From My Computer, click Tools, then Map Network Drive. Find the shared DVD and assign it a drive letter. Depending on the game, you might have to uninstall and reinstall using this drive letter as the source. Also, you'll always need to have this drive mapped when you start the game and probably while you are playing it. This could be a problem if you need to use the DVD for something else at the same time.

Second, if your son's computer has a big enough hard drive, you can run a virtual DVD drive. I haven't used one in some time but used to use virtual CD drives all the time to save wear on my game CDs. Do a search on virtual drives and see if you can find anything that might work. The drawback is that you'll have to make an image of the DVD on your son's computer -- hence the need for a big HD.

But, actually, getting a DVD is no big deal. You can get them for under $20US and installing them is almost a no brainer. EDIT: You can install the DVD in place of the CD, straight swap.

--Pete

[kandrathe]

First, try mapping the DVD drive onto your son's computer.

It's also quite easy to use iSCSI to share drives across the internet (or home network).

[Crusader]

Rip an image of the DVD, copy it over to the son's computer, mount it in a virtual DVD drive. You can do the mounting with free software like Daemon Tools, my personal favorite.

I wouldn't play games with the dvd shared over the network. Too slow.

[DeeBye]

Rip an image of the DVD, copy it over to the son's computer, mount it in a virtual DVD drive. You can do the mounting with free software like Daemon Tools, my personal favorite.

This is absolutely the best way, other than just buying cheap DVD drives.

Go to your local Mom & Pop computer store and ask if they have any old DVD drives (specify that you don't want burners) lying around and that you'll buy a couple for $10.

[Taem]

Rip an image of the DVD, copy it over to the son's computer, mount it in a virtual DVD drive. You can do the mounting with free software like Daemon Tools, my personal favorite.

I wouldn't play games with the dvd shared over the network. Too slow.

Tried this using Alcohol 120%, but the copyright on the DVD still seems to know if the DVD is not in the drive! It's Microsoft's Viva Pinata for the PC.

[Taem]

This is absolutely the best way, other than just buying cheap DVD drives.

Go to your local Mom & Pop computer store and ask if they have any old DVD drives (specify that you don't want burners) lying around and that you'll buy a couple for $10.

Maybe they still have those in Canada, but here all I see are Fry's and Best Buy's with an occasional Computer Repair Shop. Of course, there is Craigslist.

[Taem]

Hi,
Two ideas.

First, try mapping the DVD drive onto your son's computer. From My Computer, click Tools, then Map Network Drive. Find the shared DVD and assign it a drive letter. Depending on the game, you might have to uninstall and reinstall using this drive letter as the source. Also, you'll always need to have this drive mapped when you start the game and probably while you are playing it. This could be a problem if you need to use the DVD for something else at the same time.

"Please insert the 'correct' CD into the drive." The copyright on this Microsoft Viva Pinata disc is annoying.

[Taem]

It's also quite easy to use iSCSI to share drives across the internet (or home network).

I broke down and just bought them an external DVD ROM for $29.99. Now everybody's happy.

[kandrathe]

I broke down and just bought them an external DVD ROM for $29.99. Now everybody's happy.

If you ask a geek question, you get a geek answer. My wife can shop. :)

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details...;DisplayLang=en

[Taem]

I thought SCSI was dead decades ago. Daisy-chaining IDE drives isn't my idea of a compromise. But I see that this is a software thing. So the technology for SCSI was made into a software idea over a network? Interesting. Deserves further study.

[kandrathe]

I thought SCSI was dead decades ago. Daisy-chaining IDE drives isn't my idea of a compromise. But I see that this is a software thing. So the technology for SCSI was made into a software idea over a network? Interesting. Deserves further study.

iSCSI is a bit different. I've used it recently to create a massive 96 TB SAN/NAS device at work (server with lots of big cheap disks) for use as an alternative to tape backup. We also stream our data to an off site disk array over the internet using compression and a secure channel over night. Backup and restore is super fast, and we don't have to worry about tape integrity, transport, storage, etc.

Like this;

http://www.aberdeeninc.com/abcatg/STIRLING-X888.htm

Only much cheaper when you design and build it from parts (< $7000). I dreamed up this scheme when I saw IBM's price tag for Tivoli, and their tape storage prices. Then there is the whole problem of who wants to learn to use Tivoli anyway? And, then there is the cost of training someone to use Tivoli.