OK, this is a problem, not a solution.

I had waaaay too many software CDs/DVDs cluttering up my office. One wet Sunday afternoon, I had a brainwave. I'd back them all up to an external drive, saving myself loads of space and giving me the option to reinstall them direct from the hard drive if necessary.

I then chucked the disks in the bin...

... before I'd checked to see if what has been copied was what needed to be copied... :-(

I just came to reinstall a piece of software, and discovered that nowhere - but nowhere - is there a setup.exe file in the backed-up version.

I checked others - and in the large majority of cases, I have the same problem.

As such, the backup files I have are useless - and the original CDs/DVDs are long gone.

Unless someone out there knows better.

I don't know whether for some reason the setup.exe files didn't copy or whether, in fact, there never were setup.exe files on the original media.

I'm guessing that just about all the CDs/DCDs were autorun-enabled. Does that mean they wouldn't have had a setup.exe file?

So: is the solution to my problem as simple (and as tedious...) as copying the relevant files back to blank media, but making the media autorun-capable?

Advice greatly appreciated.

Oh, and - a warning to us all not to get smart with software... :-(