- Use an External
Optical Drive (can be bootable)
Required: External optical drive (can be purchased by vendor directly,
or cheaper by another vendor like NewEgg)
External optical drives are the easiest way to use CD/DVD media and
install software to your Tablet PC. It is however, normally the most
expensive.
External DVD readers can be had online for less than $100
now days, but you will likely pay over $200 at your local Best Buy or
Circuit City.
External drives are very simple; just plug it into an available USB
port, and a power outlet if needed and you’re good to go. Your Tablet
PC should automatically detect the drive and simply add it to
My
Computer just like a built in drive. Some drives will even run
power through the USB, while this makes them more mobile it eats up your
Tablet
PC battery faster, if that is a problem other external drives do
require a power outlet for use but should not drain your battery.
You can also use an online outlet (such as
NewEgg.com) to
purchase an external enclosure for around $20, and then a old-fashioned
CD/DVD drive (not writer) for $20 creating a budget oriented $40 fully
functional external enclosure.
The one trick with external drives is not all external drives are
bootable. Trial and error has revealed it appears the enclosure, not
the drive itself, is what determines if it is bootable. This creates
the advantage to making your own external drive in that if it is not
bootable you can (assuming you can’t return anything) get a new
enclosure for around $20 instead of being out the larger amount for a
pre-assembled external unit.
> Note: Optical drives that are packaged or sold by your Tablet PC
vendor should be bootable unless otherwise specified.
> Note: You want your optical drive to be bootable (and external
optical drives are the only bootable method) in the event you have to A)
Use your factory restore CD to, restore your tablet to factory settings…
or B) Complete an entire re-format. These should be the only times you
would need your optical drive to be bootable.
- Create an Image (not
bootable)
Required: Image making software (like
Alcohol 120%
or
VirtualDrive), image emulation software (Alcohol 120% includes one,
Dameon Tools is another), access to a computer with an optical drive,
and a method to transfer a
large file from that computer to your
Tablet PC.
You will need to use your particular software User-Guide for most of
this process. What you do essentially is use software to create an
exact copy of the CD in the form of a file (normally a .iso) that has to
be read by an optical drive emulator which then can access the CD as if
it were being read by a real optical drive. The biggest disadvantage to
this method is that CDs can run around 700mbs, DVDs around 4gbs…
transferring files of that size, even over fast networks, can be
tedious. A benefit however is you can carry important CDs (as files)
with you as you go, so for example if you need to install Microsoft Word
content to use some feature while your in a meeting, you can do so
without having the physical CD with you… This however of course requires
heavy
disk space since the CD file tends to be around 700mbs.
> Note: The legality around creating CD images is grey. You should
be fine as long as you only make (and do not share with anyone) images
for CDs you physically own, and only install it on the number of
machines that matches the number of licenses you own (most software you
purchase includes one license). It’s simple, if your honest and fair
you should be fine under the law, if your not… then user beware
My optical drive aluminum imac stopped working.
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