loading remote DVD drive as if it was local?

[thedutt]

Hi All,

Is there a way in XP to load a remote DVD drive such as it appears as a local DVD drive to the application? I can mount it as a drive, but the applicaitons fail to find it as a DVD drive (e.g installed games refuse to find this drive as DVD drive). I am attempting to use a single DVD drive on two computers.

Thanks in advance for help.

 

[site3op]

Yes, this is possible. The problem you are having

(e.g installed games refuse to find this drive as DVD drive).

is because installed applications know the path used for their install. There are registry entries, usually (sometimes ini files) that they use to point to the source disc when needed. So, you can either find the registry entries for the applications already installed (e.g. games) and change them to the new DVD path or drive letter, find ini files for the apps to see if the paths are listed there, or reinstall the applications from the new location of the DVD drive.

 

[thedutt]

Thank you for the reply.. But I did install the games from the same network mapped drive, so that should not be an issues. The issues happen immediately after installing the game from the network mapped disk.

Someone mentioned that this happens due to the fact that mapped network drives dont appear as a "DVD" drive and the game is unable to read the "hidden, anti piracy" data from the mapped drive..


Thanks for the suggestion.

 

[choknuti]

I think you just answered your self there. A CD/DVD shared through a network is recognized by the OS as a network drive (read HDD). Your prob is the anti-piracy stuff.
f the software is legally owned feel free to use the no CD cracks. I use then on almost all the games I buy (much less hassle that way. oblivion and GalCIV 2 are 2 recent exceptions )