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General discussion

Vista Network installation?

Feb 6, 2007 5:25AM PST

Heyas,

Recently I purchased Vista Home Edition and didn't realize it was on a DVD-ROM until I got home and opened it. Is there anyway to install Vista remotely on the machine that doesn't have a DVD-ROM drive? I would simply switch out DVD drives but the other computer is a laptop.

Thanks ahead of time this is really giving me a headache and I'm not sure if I should just go out and buy a DVD-ROM.

Discussion is locked

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get cd-rom
Feb 6, 2007 8:45AM PST
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Three possibilities...
Feb 6, 2007 11:52AM PST

1.) Perhaps the simplest method would be to purchase a DVD-ROM drive, which can be had for well under $30 online through reputible stores such as newegg.com. That solves the immediate issue as well as providing a long-term solution for watching DVDs and installing other DVD-based software.

2.) Rip the DVD to your laptop's hard drive, send it over the network to your desktop, and then use DaemonTools (free through Cnet's download.com) to mount the ISO. Click here for more information.

3.) Use a file splitter to break the DVD up into multiple CDs, and burn them using your laptop. You can then insert the CDs, one-by-one, into your desktop and attempt to install. I have not tried this myself, however, and there is the possibility that it will fail, meaning you wasted 7 CDs.

Hope this helps,
John