Need to install a software on a CD on my lappie, but it does not have a CD/

[jezbel]

Hello,

This is Jezbel. I need your help I have a CD with a software program on it, it is a data mining software, for my part time job at the college. It is the original CD and has one unused license.

I need to install it on my laptop, but I do not have a CD or DVD player on my laptop. I can however use a friends laptop with a CD player to run the CD, but obviously I do not want to install it on her laptop.

Is there any way I can open the CD on her laptop and then copy the contents to a flash/USB drive and then install the software on my laptop? (remember, my laptop does not have a CD/DVD drive).

I hope the answer is yes

Much appreciated,
xx

Jez

[october262]

You can buy a cheap usb CD/ DVD drive

[johns0]

You can also put the cd program on a flash drive and see it it will install from that,most programs will let you do that but some programs might not.

[Constant Gardener]

Connect the two laptops together either by wifi or network cable. Put the CD in your friend's laptop and share it. Find the shared drive under "network" on your laptop. You should be able to install the program.

[jollyjohn]

Do some Google: How to... ...?

[pandy]

Do some Google: How to... ...?

Well we can assume that she is a: pretty, blond girl...

[darkknight145]

If the CD doesn't have copyright protection you can either just copy it to a flash drive and run it from there, or another option is to create an ISO file and copy that to your laptop, then mount the ISO (windows can do this natively) and then run the setup file

[gll99]

I bought a usb 3.0 ide/sata externally powered connector (mine is a Nexstar brand) a few years back (it's usb 2.0 backwards compatible). I use it to connect hdd that don't have a housing but it also works with a cd/dvd drive that you would normally mount inside a desktop case. It works perfectly fine with Win10 but should work with any win os. I haven't tried a BR drive but it would probably work. I even connected it to a tablet running win10 home that has usb 3.0 ports and it works to read and write DVD discs.

[orsetto]

It is the original CD and has one unused license.

Software that mentions a limited number of "licenses" may have a protection scheme that prevents the installer from working if copied to a USB flash drive. Why not just try it first, it might work: copy the entire contents of the CD to an empty (erased) USB stick, then rename the stick itself to the same name that Windows shows for the CD. Plug the USB stick into your laptop, and see if the copied installer will put a usable version of the app on your laptop.

If not, you'll just need to buy or borrow a portable accessory USB CD/DVD drive for your laptop. There are tons of these available in the $20-$25 price range. You just plug it into your laptop, then load the software CD and proceed as if your laptop had a built-in CD drive: there's no difference as far as the software disc is concerned. My office bought a bunch of these cheap LG drives two years ago, no problems with any so far (although all makes/models of portable CD/DVD drive tend to be fragile and less reliable than built-ins or full-sized AC powered drives):

https://www.amazon.com/LG-Electronics-GP50NB40-Portable-Rewriter/dp/B00AWRTXVS