Playing Games from CD or DVD

xnomadxx420 · #1 22-12-2005

I was just wondering if there was anyway to play games directly from the cd rather than installing the games to my hard drive? I have 2 20gig hard drives and its full as it is. TY

DuffMan · #2 23-12-2005

You can't do this, as the CD contains all the files in a setup file, they are compressed, then when the game is installed, all the required files and data are installed onto your PC, in the earlier days of CD gaming, only a few files were installed onto your hard drive and the game ran mostly from the CD, but this is all changed due to much, much larger files and operating requirements (a CD drive can only read at slower speed, you would end up blowing your CD drive apart if you tried to play a game constantly reading from it).

UPucker · #3 23-12-2005

While all the above is true, you still might be able to do it. But its a pain in the ass.

If the game dosent need to save any game data while your playing(or you can assign a different save game directory), you can install the game to your hd, then burn it back onto a dvd-r(w). Try it with a dvd-rw and see if it works. Some games need to have the location updated in the registry to work like this.

You could also try installing to a packet written dvd-rw. But as DuffMan said this will be very slow loading and may not perform well enough for you to even play the game.

DuffMan · #4 24-12-2005

Yeah that's correct UPucker, didn't think of installing it first on the hard drive, then burning to a DVD or CDR, using a No-CD patch though.

UPucker · #5 26-12-2005

I used to do it alot back in the cdr dats, before big HD's were available. Sometimes it works easily, and sometimes you have to edit the path to get it to work right.

xnomadxx420 · #6 31-12-2005

I was going to try and save space but I guess now I'm just going to have to buy another hard drive. Games these days are huge and I'm running outta space fast. Well thanks anyway.