[StrangerFO3]

1st of all, I apologize in advance to the staff of FileForums if this issue has already been posted and corrected.

My issue: I own two copies of the Age of Empires collector's edition. I want to play AOE2 with the expansion on a laptop with no disc drive.

I have no problem getting the game up and running on my laptop as I can just pop the disc in and start right up. My fiancee has the laptop that doesn't have a disk drive.

I downloaded all of the files from AOE2 & expansion onto a USB and loaded them onto her laptop along with the "Age of Empires 2: Gold Edtion v1.0 [ENGLISH] No-CD/Fixed Update".

So based on the instructions...

Install the game - Full Installation.
Execute AGE2UPA.EXE to apply the official Age of Empires 2 v2.0a Patch.
Execute AGE2XUPATCH.EXE to apply the official Age of Empires 2 Expansion v1.0c Patch.

...I was able to install the game off of USB, apply the v.2.0a & v1.0c patches.

However, I'm having a problem with the last step.

Replace the original EMPIRES2.EXE & AGE2_X1.EXE files with the ones from the File Archive.

I'm not entirely sure I am doing this part right. I can find the replacement files that I've downloaded, but when I place them where I believe they go & then I click the icon to play the game, I still get the error that I need the disc in order to play the game.

Can someone kindly give me better instruction for the layman.

A thousand thanks.