Avoiding the need to have cd-rom in cd-drive, but how..

Halo,

I recently bought a set of educational software concerning science. I installed it, but immediately found that the software has to refer back to the cdrom whenever it needs to load something. THere are many disadvantages. Firstly, time. I'm on laptop, and cd doesn't spin continously, only for a few seconds. So whenever i click something, it has to load from cd, which then i have to wait for the cd to start spinning again! Another major concern is hardware. Spinning the cd and stopping and spinning it again with gaps within seconds doesn't sound very healthy for the comp (i luv.. my comp u know..), at least thats what i think.

So the question is, is there any way i can avoid the software to refer back to the cd? I mean i need something like a "no cd crack", but not exactly that, since it's illegal, but i don't think there would be one for educational software like this anyway.

cd cracks are not illegal. Some are quite legal since you own the software and simply do not want to keep using the cds.

like you said, however, you probably won't find one for that software. Your best bet would be to copy everything from the cd into a folder on your harddrive. Usually apps are built with the idea that the executable looks in the same directory for it's additional information as the place where the exe is stored. Try it, it's worth a shot.

I think it's different in my case. THe software has the option to install itself onto the hdd, which i did. But i think only a few main files that execute the program are installed. So the executable would be on the computer. I'm afraid that the exe would look for stuff on the cdrom drive no matter what.

If it doesn't have a "full install" option, try :

- uninstall
- copy all files from the CD to your HDD (not the program files directory),
- install it again, but from your HDD, not the CD. It may work, then again...

Thanks Hammer and ober5861!

Problem fixed. I installed from hdd. Whew, i think only a programmer can figure that one out >.^.

Just out of curiosity, can a program not

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built with the idea that the executable looks in the same directory for it's additional information as the place where the exe is stored

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, and instead, using some sort of windows routine to search cd-rom drives?

just curious, what should be tried if that doesn't work. My grandpa has a chess game that only runs from the CD. I got it to run from the HD once, but later his comp screwed up and no matter what I tried it won't run with out the disk.

If you legally own the CD, like ober said, I'd look for a crack for it.

There is a very simple methood to all cd problems:
1) copy all files from cd to hdd;
2) use special software to make a folder
look like CD-ROM device(system can't tell them apart!!!)

Special software:
- Paragon Cd Emulator
- Virtual CD
- Fantom CD
- many, many others
- interesting DOS command "subst"