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USB substitution for notebook without optical drive

Discussion in 'Accessories' started by mailxiaodan, Jan 17, 2009.

mailxiaodan Notebook Enthusiast

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It seems I rarely use the optical drive anyway. Mostly only when installing Windows.

I'm getting a new notebook without optical drive, and I'm a student sensitive about spending money on an external optical drive that costs more than $50.

Any neat USB solution that could eliminate the necessity of an optical drive, given I have access to desktop machines with optical drives?

Thanks!

mailxiaodan, Jan 17, 2009

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paper_wastage Beat this 7x7x7 Cube

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you could use Alcohol 120% on both machines.... on the desktop optical drive, make an ISO of the CD/DVD.... then use the network(or the hugely cheap-large capacity USB flash drives) to copy to your laptop, then use any disc emulation software to use it

though this wont work for some discs with copyright protection...

and i'd recommend you to get your notebook, reinstall windows(with 2 partitions: 1 OS, 1 user document), install drivers/software... then use backup software(i use Acronis) to make a clone of the hard drive... next time, u just have to reflash the OS partition with the OS partition... instant install, dont have to backup+restore documents(but i'd still suggest you to backup the user document partition)

paper_wastage, Jan 17, 2009

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