[BTS] Disc vs. download?

[EyeLander]

Was just gifted a new Lenova Thinkpad with Windows 10, after my old unit crashed. I'm jonesing to play Rise From Erebus again!
Problem: no disc drive. I have an older LG usb disc drive, and can't seem to properly load Civ4, although I did get Colonization working just fine.
Question: were it you, would you:
A) buy a digital download of Civ4 and BTS?
B) buy a newer usb disc drive?
C) Or?
Thanks in advance for any advice. I live in the middle of nowhere, and don't always have internet access, so I rely on many hours of the excellent Civ4 mods to help maintain my sanity, such as it is.

 

[s.bernbaum]

Buying a newer disc drive will do you no good at all for loading CIV4. Microsoft has removed the ability to access programs on discs protected by the disc protection scheme that they were promoting when CIV4 was released and is used by CIV4, in Windows 10. They blocked it in Windows 7 but there is a work around for that. I think that your CIV4 has probably been installed properly. The need to access the no longer accessible protection only comes into play when you load the game to play and it looks at the disc to verify that you have the disc. The solution is, once you have installed CIV4, you need to install the last extension, Beyond The Sword (BTS). Once you have done that, you need to download the update patch for BTS to update it to the last official patch which is BTS 3.19. You will then be able to play CIV4 BTS, since 3.19 does not need the disc to run and, therefore, removes the problem with the disc protection scheme. (They removed the access to the scheme because they wrote it poorly and it created a security risk.)

 

[EyeLander]

hmm...I managed to get disc 1 to load, but installation quit before disc 2 was finished....which I would think means I don't have a proper install.
Yay Windows 10 for making it a pain in the ass to load my favorite game.