do I need an external drive?

[word2218]

Hi all,

I have an x60s with a ultrabase - one of the programs that I use needs a CD to boot up - is there any software out there that will allow me to copy the CD to my hard drive, and pretend like it is physically there? does anything like that come preloaded on my x60s?

or am I SOL and need to buy a USB drive? I commute on the train for about 40 minutes each day, and breaking out a USB CD rom would probably be a pain in the butt..

thanks in advance..

ps would the same type of software work for watching DVDs on a long plane flight?

[surg]

I cannot see a chance to boot from an image file. You would have to partition your harddrive an use a bootmanager. This is quite a lot more pain in the a.. than carrying a USB drive.
For DVD playback- well unfortunately there is no legal way to copy most commercially available DVD's to your drive.
Unprotected DVD's copied to HD can be played by all recent software players.

[tfflivemb2]

You could use a program like Alcohol 120%, but is about $50 (USD).

[surg]

I don't think that Alk can boot an image file.

[nickpoore]

I think a lot of you are taking his "I need to boot software with a CD in the drive" too literally.
He probably does not need to boot the OS, he probably just needs to load software that requires that the CD be presant.

I've seen such software in the past, and the CD's are usually copy protected.
However, there are several applications out there that allow you to mount an ISO file as a logical drive.

(A quick search of download.com turned up MagicISO, but I have never used this, it was just the first one I came across.)

There are many utilites out there that allow you to "rip" a DVD. This would allow you to copy it to your hard drive.
The legality of such software is questionable, but most people assume that this is "fair use" as long as they own the DVD.