a goody - improving pc/mac hardware relations!
 

OK - I've resurrected my rusty old PC for some games. Downside? No DVD drive.
However, I do have a DVD drive in my Mac.

I would like to use my Mac DVD drive (over LAN) to install the software on my pc.

Mac spec - OSX 10.4.11
PC spec - XP Pro SP3

I was hoping that I could map the dvd drive as a network drive in XP...

Is this possible?

Dan :)

You can share the drive on the mac, (or another pc) and the pc will see it as a network share. You will be able to install some games and other software off of it, but any discs that have copy protection will not work. Given that most games require you to have the cd inserted to play, I suspect this approach might not work in a lot of cases.

Why not just spend £10 and get a new dvd drive for the pc? It would be easier :)

Thanks Iain,

It's things like Office 2007 at the moment which I can't install (don't need DVD access all the time)...

Yeh - I'm going to get another drive, but this is just a tide-me-over until it turns up (I live in the middle of nowhere, so access to IT peripherals is somewhat limited!! :D)

How to you access the Mac's drive then? I've got access to the share (from the "view workgroups" in XP) so far, but no access to the actual drive....

Help!

Dan :)

I live in Swindon, and IT peripherals are still far and few between (I refuse to frequent pc world ;)). That's what the interweb and next day delivery is for...

Anyway, Office 2007 etc should install fine. In fact, you can just copy the install files from the dvd into a folder somewhere on the pc and install it from there if you want. To do it over the network....

• Share drive on the mac
• Open up explorer on xp and navigate to the network share onthe mac (\\mymac\dvddrive)
• Double click setup.exe (or whatever the setup program is called).

Or have I missed the point of your question?
Iain

That's exactly what I'm looking for mate :)

The only issue is that I don't know how to share the mac drive.....

Any thoughts?

Dan :)

I've not done it myself (I've not got a mac, and only use the one at work on rare occaisions - when I have to ;)).

This may help though...

Sharing files between a Windows XP PC and a Mac running OS 10.4.x

Mac OS X: How to access a Mac's files on your PC

lol!

Thanks for the links - they show how to connect to files on the Mac, but not how to connect to an actual drive.....

might be easier to grab a dvd drive!! :D

Nice one though :)

Dan

after all that, I've just found a cr@ppy old dvd rom in an old pc in the loft!! :D

Just need to install some dvds (hope it still works!)

Dan :)

Can anyone point me in the direction of a Mac networking 'how to'? I failed to connect an old OS9 iMac previously. I now have a current Mac running 10.4 and Im wondering if it will be similarly convoluted. Im an experienced PC user, but Im an absolute novice with Macs: its difficult sitting there not knowing where to start.

Im looking to connect the Mac to t'internet as follows Mac integrated NIC > Ethernet cable > 10mbps hub > Ethernet cable > DSL router > t'internet. I dont want to get cocky, but after Ive managed that is it too much to hope that an AirPort card will connect to a standard 54G DSL router?

Simon

Hi mate,

It's REALLY easy now (especially if you're running XP ;) )

Mine's always found the folders simply - here's a good website to walk you through it :)

Mac Connect - networking Mac and PC

Here's one for Vista, but I haven't tried it (I binned Vista pretty quickly!) - looks ok though

How do I... Connect Windows Vista to a Macintosh network?


Hope this helps :)

Dan

also to add - the airport will hook up nicely with any wireless router :)

Just ensure you've got the wep/wpa key etc :)

Dan

Thank you :thumb: