# Visual Basic > Visual Basic 6 and Earlier >  Transfer VB6 from CD set to USB drive

## el84

I have an original and fully licenced Microsoft Visual Studio 6.0 Enterprise Edition, on a 3 CD pack, complete with CD Key. 

In view of the fact that new PCs often do not have CD drives I would like to transfer the software to a USB drive.

I imagine there will be three problems to overcome

1 Omitting any autoboot facility on the CD set
2 Accommodating the existing Insert disc # ? messages
3 Enabling installation on W10 or W11.

I would also like some advice as to the size of the USB drive I would need.
I would like to hear from any reader who has actually done this, with advice as to which steps to follow.

BTW I also have a 2 CD set MSDN Library, and yet another CD: VB6 Service Pack 6

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## TysonLPrice

Is it already copied somewhere?  I transferred it once from my PC to a drive with no issues.

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## couttsj

My new computer (Win 11) does not have a CD drive, so I copied the installation CDs to a 16 GB USB Flash Drive along with SP6. There was plenty of room left over, and the installations went smoothly. I also have a damaged MSDN Library which I also copied to the Flash Drive. The missing files were copied from the old computer onto the Flash Drive. For security reasons, I do have any shared directories available.

J.A. Coutts

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## ntstatic

this is how i have it stored in my harddisk and it works perfectly 

 Volume in drive Y has no label.
 Volume Serial Number is 0803-A9BA

 Directory of Y:\Prog\VS\VB6+Controls\DiskDumps

23/08/17  07:29 PM    <DIR>          .
23/08/17  07:29 PM    <DIR>          ..
23/08/17  07:27 PM    <DIR>          Disk1
23/08/17  07:28 PM    <DIR>          Disk2
23/08/17  07:28 PM    <DIR>          Disk3
23/08/17  07:29 PM    <DIR>          MSDN1
23/08/17  07:29 PM    <DIR>          MSDN2
23/08/17  07:29 PM    <DIR>          MSDN3
               0 File(s)              0 bytes
               8 Dir(s)  17,577,324,544 bytes free

i also have iso's of the disks in case the files above get corrupted or infected ( i run my os without an antivirus even defender is forced off - i have never had an infection in the last 15 years ) 

i have the Visual studio 6 sp6 in the parent folder which should be applied afterwards 

having said that .. i run all this on a windows 10 Version 10.0.16299.125 which has updates turned off ... 
i have an image of the system partition which i restore at least in 2 months ... most time if i am experementing with some installations faster .. the moment i think my system is not working like i want or feel there is a difference ... i restore the windows partition 

my desktop is on another drive so are the documents and download folder and so on ... my browser is portable firefox ( also portable chrome) on another drive 

when i think i will need a software to be installed ... and will use it for future ... i do a restore of the system ... install the software ... and take an incremental backup of the system partition

EDIT : there is a similar dump of office 97 and office 2003 for MS Access and some of the components which are my favourites 
Sheridan (now infragistics and now something else) datawidgets 2 (i  have 3 also but that is too cumbersome ) 
activereports, ImagXpress 8, Componentone (though i dont use this) and a few others

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## el84

Thanks for responses so far!
The problems that remain for me are:
* which files of a CD are just specific to a CD and so can be omitted when copying?
* how to deal with messages like 'Insert CD No. 3'?
I knew this stuff when I was a mere 70 year old!

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## OptionBase1

> Thanks for responses so far!
> The problems that remain for me are:
> * which files of a CD are just specific to a CD and so can be omitted when copying?
> * how to deal with messages like 'Insert CD No. 3'?
> I knew this stuff when I was a mere 70 year old!


Regarding the first question, we're decades past where media free space is a premium, so that isn't even a road to go down.  Copy everything.

Regarding the second question, many (good) installers will allow you to browse to a location that contains the files being sought in lieu of a disc swapout.

I don't know if VS6/VB6 Setup works that way, but if not you could always use the "Subst" dos command to give your "Disk1" folder a drive letter, and then when it asks for disk 2 (or disk 3, or msdn disk 1, etc.), you delete that substitution and create a new one.

Example (run from an elevated command prompt):

- Subst M: C:\Data\VisualBasic6\Disk1\
- (Leave the command prompt window open, and start the installation from the M:\ drive)
- (When prompted to insert Disk 2, do these steps back in the command prompt window)
- Subst M: /D
- Subst M: C:\Data\VisualBasic6\Disk2\
- (Click OK in the installer indicating that Disk 2 is now inserted)
- (...and so on for any subsequent requests to "insert new media")

Note that for any subst commands using folders with spaces in them, the entire path likely needs to be enclosed in quotes, like:

Subst M: "C:\Data\Visual Basic 6.0\Disk 1"

Good luck.

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## DataMiser

I have installed from hdd a few times just by having a copy of the files on the hdd but I think the best way is to create ISO images of the disks and mount those as needed. When it prompts for another disk you just mount the iso of the disc it is asking for though if memory serves only one of those discs is actually the VB install and I think the MSDN was 2 disks, If you have VS6 then the other disks are for other software products.

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## couttsj

> Thanks for responses so far!
> The problems that remain for me are:
> * which files of a CD are just specific to a CD and so can be omitted when copying?
> * how to deal with messages like 'Insert CD No. 3'?
> I knew this stuff when I was a mere 70 year old!


I copied the entire CD disks over to the Flash Drive, with the exception of the non-English directories. I used the "xcopy" command to speed up the process. The only CD related file was the AUTORUN.INF file, which simple states:


```
[autorun]
OPEN=SETUP.EXE /AUTORUN
```

So to start the process, you simply run "setup.exe" in the elevated command mode. I don't remember the Change Disk prompt at all, since all the necessary files were already on the Flash Drive. Do not install the database files, as the latest versions are already installed on your hard drive, and doing so will cause the setup to crash.

Hope this helps.

J.A. Coutts

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## el84

> I copied the entire CD disks over to the Flash Drive, with the exception of the non-English directories. I used the "xcopy" command to speed up the process. The only CD related file was the AUTORUN.INF file, which simple states:
> 
> 
> ```
> [autorun]
> OPEN=SETUP.EXE /AUTORUN
> ```
> 
> So to start the process, you simply run "setup.exe" in the elevated command mode. I don't remember the Change Disk prompt at all, since all the necessary files were already on the Flash Drive. Do not install the database files, as the latest versions are already installed on your hard drive, and doing so will cause the setup to crash.
> ...


'Do not install the database files...doing so will cause the setup to crash'. 
(Shudder!)
Which are the database files please?

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## couttsj

> 'Do not install the database files...doing so will cause the setup to crash'. 
> (Shudder!)
> Which are the database files please?


You don;t need to worry about that. You will be prompted to install the database files during the installation. I also recommend installing VB in a single directory (VB98) off the root, rather than the default. It makes accessing files much easier.

J.A. Coutts

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## fafalone

You have to uncheck ADO and RDS from the Data Access options in setup. You should search for instructions, there's also a bit more too it, like dealing with msjava, running as admin, then a couple other things that seem to affect some people but not others. I recommend only installing VB+VC++ (plus the utilities etc, just not Visual Interdev, FoxPro, or J++)

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## Darkbob

"i have never had an infection in the last 15 years"

There's a famous orange skinned politician who frequents hookers and said exactly the same thing!

I mean Ho Ho Ho Merry Christmas and all the best in the new year.

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## fafalone

For a lot of us the equation is more like 'I don't use condoms but I only sleep with partners in a committed relationship after we've been tested together.'

I aggressively block ads and scripts, keep the firewall on, and am very careful about what executables I download. The last infection I had was way back when all you had to do was connect to the internet and you'd be infected minutes later with zero interaction; I keep an eye on all processes and system activity and run a stripped down version of Windows without all the cruft and 3rd party shovelware of consumer versions. 

This is a worthwhile tradeoff to not have the incredibly obnoxious Defender tying up resources, spying on me, and constantly screwing with my files despite turning off real time features (the first time that **** turned back on without permission, reverting a group policy change, was when it got ripped out). As far as I'm concerned, Defender is malware, and so are a lot of updates.

I feel like the vast majority of people have 1 virus per 20 years get through their antivirus anyway; so if I'm beating that, I'm happy.

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## ntstatic

> "i have never had an infection in the last 15 years"
> 
> There's a famous orange skinned politician who frequents hookers and said exactly the same thing!
> 
> I mean Ho Ho Ho Merry Christmas and all the best in the new year.


there is a difference .. as you may have noticed ... i keep going back to my old image file every few months  :Smilie:  

hope someone could do the same with their bodies ... .dont we  :Big Grin:

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## couttsj

> I aggressively block ads and scripts, keep the firewall on, and am very careful about what executables I download. The last infection I had was way back when all you had to do was connect to the internet and you'd be infected minutes later with zero interaction; I keep an eye on all processes and system activity and run a stripped down version of Windows without all the cruft and 3rd party shovelware of consumer versions.


I though I was the only one that behaved that way. With so many services running in the background, and Scheduled Tasks that turn the services back on when you turn them off, Windows 11 has been a nightmare. There used to be a Web Site that explained what each of services did along with their dependencies, but I have not found one for Windows 11. I used to be able to determine when updates and virus scans would run, but now they just run automatically at the most inopportune times. How did you manage to strip down Windows?

J.A. Coutts

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## fafalone

I started with Enterprise LTSC which lacks all of the 3rd party stuff and bloat like the MS Store, OneDrive, and others to begin with, found numerous references for what group policies to disable to turn off all the spyware (careful here, I did accidentally break the ability to debug an app when it crashes; changing the related policies back didn't fix it... it shouldn't break entirely just because you turn off the ability to send reports and change the URL to null, but it did), then went through services disabling the ones I could identify as unneeded and checking for any scheduled tasks associated with them or the remaining spyware functions of the OS.

For a while I left Windows Update on because this version is only supposed to receive security updates, but after MS played it really loose with that definition, reverted some of my changes to lock down telemetry, etc, it got disabled too. The final straw was when a bad update made every single VB6 app require administrator to run (it detected a flagged this the second you compiled even a blank, new app), poisoned entire directories like this (all other apps then became flagged), and also treated them all as "legacy installers" where you'd get prompted with 'did this install correctly' after every run. This was all *completely* undocumented in the information for the update; they mentioned no change to legacy installer detection or policy whatsoever.

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## Zann

Happy New Year to all

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## couttsj

It is hard to believe, but Microsoft had the audacity to replace Firefox with Edge on my Task Bar for Windows 11. it wasn't done on an update, so it must have been one of the many scheduled tasks they have running.

J.A. Coutts

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## TysonLPrice

> You have to uncheck ADO and RDS from the Data Access options in setup. You should search for instructions, there's also a bit more too it, like dealing with msjava, running as admin, then a couple other things that seem to affect some people but not others. I recommend only installing VB+VC++ (plus the utilities etc, just not Visual Interdev, FoxPro, or J++)


Along those lines there is a link that covers all that and someone put together an installation process (use the search feature).  Here is a link to part of what fafalone mentioned:

https://www.raymond.cc/blog/install-...hine-for-java/

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## DataMiser

> It is hard to believe, but Microsoft had the audacity to replace Firefox with Edge on my Task Bar for Windows 11. it wasn't done on an update, so it must have been one of the many scheduled tasks they have running.
> 
> J.A. Coutts


Interesting. I gave up on Firefox a few years ago, started seeing some serious memory issues with it causing the system to grind almost to a halt whenever Firefox had been idle for a few minutes it was grabbing all the system ram and had to kill the task to get it to release the ram. When this happened it appeared the PC was frozen, click on something or try to pull up task manager nothing would happen for what seemed like close to 5 minutes. Kill Firefox and everything is fine, finally I just stopped using it.

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## fafalone

Eating up all the RAM is a trait Firefox and Chrome seem to share. Just got to restart them every day or two like it's early 00s Windows.

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## couttsj

> Eating up all the RAM is a trait Firefox and Chrome seem to share. Just got to restart them every day or two like it's early 00s Windows.


Long ago I used to have that problem with Firefox, but clearing history on exit and installing NoScript solved that problem. Firefox is the only browser I use now because it is the only one that provides something like NoScript.

J.A. Coutts

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## DataMiser

> Long ago I used to have that problem with Firefox, but clearing history on exit and installing NoScript solved that problem. Firefox is the only browser I use now because it is the only one that provides something like NoScript.
> 
> J.A. Coutts


Where I was seeing a huge issue is when the browser was open and idle for a little while. I use multiple PCs and a kvm switch so it is not uncommon for me to open a browser on one PC and then switch to another PC for a while without first closing the browser. Did it for years without any issues but at some point firefox started just grabbing more and more ram under this condition so when I would switch back to the pc after several minutes the browser had consumed so much ram the system was unresponsive and was a real pain to just get to the point that I could shut down Firefox. I do not usually use chrome and have not had this issue with any other browsers.

It's a shame because I liked firefox just could not deal with the system becoming unresponsive.

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## fafalone

I use uBlock Origin and it certainly slows down the RAM gobbling, but it still happens. NoScript would slow it more but I grew tired of creating whitelists for nearly every site I visit; seems like there's no sites left that work with 100% of scripts blocked.

Now I actually use Waterfox; it's still a RAM hog but it doesn't make the system unresponsive. I'll start getting some random errors, check the RAM, and realize it's restart-the-browser time. It's really irritating though those errors start happening when RAM use hits 75%... t f is with that anyway? 25% of my RAM is 8GB, no reason I should be getting out of memory issues with 8GB ram free.

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