Installaing VFP without a CD-ROM drive

[Mike Lewis]

I'm about to buy a new laptops. (My old one is literally falling to bits.) I notice that many low- and mid-range laptops no longer have a built-in CD-ROM drive.

So is it possible to install VFP other than from a CD? Can I simply do a straight copy of the relevant files and directories (VFP install directory, application data, common files/Micrsosoft shared, etc. - plus registry entries) from the old machine to the new?

Or can I create an image of the CD on a USB drive, then run Setup.EXE from there, and finally re-apply the service packs?

Or will have to buy a laptop with a CD-ROM drive merely to install VFP?

Thanks in advance for your suggestions.

Mike

__________________________________
Mike Lewis (Edinburgh, Scotland)

Visual FoxPro articles, tips and downloads

 

[Tore Bleken]

I have copied the whole install CD to a folder on my server. For an install I simply run the setup from my explorer.

 

[GriffMG]

Copying to a USB works too.
Or sharing your old CD on a network...

Regards

Griff
Keep [Smile]ing

There are 10 kinds of people in the world, those who understand binary and those who don't.

I'm trying to cut down on the use of shrieks (exclamation marks), I'm told they are !good for you. ​

 

[Koen Piller]

Mike,
I purchased an external CD-Rom (€ 19,00) and did not only enjoy being able to install VFP but also enjoyed playing CD-Roms my friends and more important, my docter gave me. It seems that in this country hospitals are not allowed to send data over the Internet, they burn e.g. your MRI scan on a CD-rom and off you go.
Regards,
Koen

 

[Olaf Doschke]

That's simple. Win10 allows you to mount an ISO as a virtual CD ROM (there is no third party software needed to emulate that), the rest is as usual.

Bye, Olaf.

Olaf Doschke Software Engineering

https://www.doschke.name

 

[Mike Lewis]

Very helpful replies. Thank you, all. I'll let you know which one I go for and how it works out.

Miie

__________________________________
Mike Lewis (Edinburgh, Scotland)

Visual FoxPro articles, tips and downloads

 

[Scott24x7]

Hi Mike,
My experience is that it's best to install from an ISO of your CD. So make a ISO copy (CD Image) on your HDD or on a USB. Then mount and install from there. In my version (at least) of VFP 9, I get an odd error (on every machine I've ever tried to install it on), during the "Pre-requisites" stage, when I just run it from a directory that I copy the contents into. But if I mount the image and run it from there (regardless of it's location), it works. I think because VFP does a "physical check for presence of an optical reader". The mounted version though virtual, still "tricks" VFP into thinking it's legit.

One other option, I have an old external USB DVD/CD ROM drive that still about once a year some client will give me data... so I use that on any of my machines to get the data off it. You may want to consider an external USB Drive just for those "legacy" moments.


Best Regards,
Scott
MSc ISM, MIET, MASHRAE, CDCP, CDCS, CDCE, CTDC, CTIA, ATS

"Everything should be made as simple as possible, and no simpler."

 

[Tore Bleken]

I have installed several times from my server, I never had any problems.

 

[Mike Lewis]

Thanks for those insights, Scott.

It will be a few weeks before I get round to doing this, so I won't be able to report back immediately. But I'll be sure to let you all know what works and what doesn't.

Mike

__________________________________
Mike Lewis (Edinburgh, Scotland)

Visual FoxPro articles, tips and downloads

 

[Scott24x7]

As I recall, at least with the CD I have (and maybe its an early/later release of VFP, I don't recall because I dowloaded it from Microsoft as part of my MSDN license some years ago), at some point it does a "check" to see if the VFP CD is in the "CD Drive". If it can't detect it, it gets stuck in moving forward, so I always just mount the ISO and it works fine... I think I even posted about this some years ago... let me see if I can find the thread.


Best Regards,
Scott
MSc ISM, MIET, MASHRAE, CDCP, CDCS, CDCE, CTDC, CTIA, ATS

"Everything should be made as simple as possible, and no simpler."

 

[Scott24x7]

Found it... this thread thread184-1709583 from 2013.

Best Regards,
Scott
MSc ISM, MIET, MASHRAE, CDCP, CDCS, CDCE, CTDC, CTIA, ATS

"Everything should be made as simple as possible, and no simpler."

 

[TamarGranor]

FWIW, when I got my first laptop without an optical drive, I bought an external one for about $30.

Tamar