How do I get World of Warcraft to install via the disc and not the internet?

Question

I just purchased World of Warcraft, it came with four 7.8GB DVDs, and after using Disc 1 and allowing it to install battle.net, it appears battle.net is installing WoW from the internet. I've tried disconnecting the internet, and battlenet won't run or install anything further. I've tried running the installer from disc one again and it simply restarts battlenet which starts downloading indices from the internet. If I remove the disc during this process it doesn't complain, and Task Manager shows that it's not accessing the disc at all.

I don't want to download all 30+GB through my slow connection. Will it eventually start pulling from the discs, or is there some way to let it know that I have them?

Answer 1

You can't.

The discs are most likely out-dated. It will do you no good to install off the disc, then re-download them anyways.

Answer 2

Battle net will first download several pieces, then will install data from disc one and ask for each disc in succession.

You’ll still end up downloading a lot of updates (about 30GB in this attempt) since any physical copy is out of date by the time they are published, however it is significantly reduced as long as Battle net detects that a disc is available.

While there doesn’t seem to be an advantage in total download time, the big advantage is that after the discs and about 5GB downloaded updates, it allows you to play the game while it downloads the remaining updates.

So the time to first play is still significantly reduced for those with slow connections.

Answer 3

Unless the discs are from the latest expansion, they are useless.

The game only needs to download about 1% of the total game to become playable. I have done download installs over very slow connections.

The game will install the game engine and other core content that it needs to function at all. Then it will activate the "Play" button. As you make choices it "on the fly" downloads needed content. A small load bar shows what it's doing. For instance as you create a new character, it will balk for a few seconds to load something. The initial "enter world" screen will take a solid couple of minutes. NPCs and objects will render funny for a few seconds while it loads their visuals. Very soon, the areas settles down and feels like normal play. It works better than you think.

Well it's designed to work even faster, to be almost unobtrusive, but our connections are slow.

You can mess with it; hop on a flying mount and you will laughably overtake its ability to download content. It wireframes the terrain well enough you can recognize where you are and avoid flying into terrain. Suddenly land in a never-seen zone and expect to be attacked by invisible monsters. Cure this by circling the area low while it renders.

Busy cities like Dalaran are also a challenge to load initially due to the hundreds of player characters, each with unique armor/weapons. If loading a character that's in-town, I recommend getting out of town ASAP, tilt camera at your feet or sky to reduce number of characters in view.

Once you get to a destination and get down to business, it stabilizes quickly.

Answer 4

What about trying to reinstall everything without installing Battle net then using the "Already installed? Locate the game" feature after installing a standalone Battle net client?

But as the other answers pointed out, the client may download updates afterwards, and the problem would still be there.

Answer 5

How about you disable your internet connection before installation? I've never tried this but it might just stick with the discs only if it cannot find a connection to battle.net.