I want to install software onto my laptop. The only problem is that the software is on CD's and my laptop does not have a CD drive. Is there a way I can put the data onto a desktop computer, put it into a flash drive, and install it on my laptop? If not, what can I do to get the software installed?

I am surprised there is no optical drive on the laptop. I don't remember seeing a laptop without one in many years. As far are copying the CD to the computer then to the flash drive, I would think much depends on how the installation program is written and the copy protection scheme of the CD. I think what I would try is sharing the computer's CD drive - that assumes both the PC and the laptop are on the same network - then install directly from the PC's CD drive to your laptop.

Digerati is right in that the installation program might be specifically written to use the CD drive. Although most haven't worked like that for a good 5-10 years. If your USB flash drive is big enough, you could certainly try copying all of the files from the CD using My Computer or Windows Explorer. Then, insert the flash drive into the laptop and you may find that the setup program runs automatically after a few seconds. If it does not (or if you copied the contents of the CD into a new folder on the USB drive), then browse to the folder that you copied the files into a look for a program called SETUP.EXE. Double-click it and the installation program should run.

Let us know if that helps

P.S. I'm assuming that your laptop has no CD drive because it is a very small / ultra-portable model where you would usually have an external CD drive that connects to it. However, if its just really, really old as Digerati suggested, then you might want to check that it actually has a USB port before you go and copy the CD contents onto a USB flash drive!!

If the Laptop has USB, For future reasons, I might suggest investing in a Portable external USB CD-ROM/Writer, so that you wont have to go through these processes to install software etc. But only if the laptop has USB Ports of course

Originally Posted by DJNafey

P.S. I'm assuming that your laptop has no CD drive because it is a very small / ultra-portable model where you would usually have an external CD drive that connects to it. However, if its just really, really old as Digerati suggested, then you might want to check that it actually has a USB port before you go and copy the CD contents onto a USB flash drive!!

Good point! However, if it does not, there are plenty of affordable USB PCMCIA Cards you can use.

Very true - I've used these in the past and they are extremely useful when you have an older laptop that has no USB port or a port that doesn't work. Depending on how much you'd use a couple of USB 2.0 ports in an add-in card, they can even prove good value for money to get some USB 2.0 performance into a laptop that only has a USB 1.1 port.

I've just realised that this thread is 5 weeks old. As TubaJoe0 hasn't taken the time to give us any feedback on our suggestions, I shall assume that the original matter is resolved or that he/she doesn't care any more - thread closed.