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    Playing off external cd drive?

    Discussion in 'Gaming (Software and Graphics Cards)' started by Blake, Sep 30, 2006.

  1. Blake

    Blake NBR Reviewer NBR Reviewer

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    My brother has a laptop that had its optical drive go bad on him. He wants to still be able to play games and such, but many require the cd's. Is it worth getting an external cd drive to play off of, or would it not be fast enough? Another method would be for me to make an image of the games he is wanting to play. It only needs to be playable, nothing blazing, as he is getting a new one for Christmas.
     
  2. Jalf

    Jalf Comrade Santa

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    I don't see why an external drive would be too slow.

    About using images, keep in mind that many games use copy protection that makes this approach very tricky, and often requires you to crack the game in any case.

    So yeah, I'd probably go with an external drive. It's hard to get by without an optical drive.
     
  3. NetBrakr

    NetBrakr Notebook Deity

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    Or you can replace the optical drive, if your brother wants to. I have both optical DVDRW (replaced from DVD/CDRW drive-nothing wrong with it) and external DVDRW+lightscribe drive and they are working just fine.

    JC
     
  4. Blake

    Blake NBR Reviewer NBR Reviewer

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    I would replace it, but I dont know how to, never put in an optical on a laptop, so I was worried I might mess it up. And it seemed that externals are roughly the same price, so If speed wasn't an issue then I was going to go that route. However, if it is easy to do then by all means ill go for it. Thanks for the help guys.
     
  5. NetBrakr

    NetBrakr Notebook Deity

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    What notoebook does your brother have?

    JC