Accessing cd-drive on other pc as device.

[interfector]

Hello all,

I am trying to run Windows XP in a Virtual Machine on my Windows 7(64bit) system.
I have a Windows XP cd, but my cd-player is broken.
I shared a cd-player on a different pc and am able to access it as a shared folder.
I tried copying the files to my HD and making aan ISO out of em. This worked, but my Virtual Machines(VMware Player & Oracle VM VirtualBox) don't detect it as a windows install, also tried to mount this ISO, didn't help either.
So my only hope now is that I can somehow detect the original XP cd with one of these VM's. But in order for this to work I have to make my system think that the cd-player on the other pc is part of the local setup, I wouldn't know how to do this and offcourse maybe you guys have a different superior idea on how to fix this.

Thanks in advance for the help.

 

[tomatthe]

I'm not certain what your plans are for the vm, but Microsoft has a free Windows XP virtual PC option that works well.

http://www.microsoft.com/windows/virtual-pc/download.aspx

 

[interfector]

Thanks for the tip, I knew about it, but that is only available for windows 7 professional, I got a home version.
Got the VM running now btw, the ISO I created didn't have a boot sector, I got a good ISO now and got it all working.
Just out of curiousity though I would like to know if it is possible to access a cd-drive in the way I thought I had to.