im getting skyrim for pc but i dont have a dic drive in my laptop. i did some research and i know that if i buy the game from a store i can just use the activation key in steam and download it. so my question is if i can install skyrim from the dvd to an external hard drive (using a diff computer) can i copy it from the hdd to my laptop? and if so would it be quicker then just downloading it from steam?

I think Steam (digital download) may be quicker, considering that you can pre load the game now. That is my opinion, though.

You could but it wouldn't work.

Though the files will be present on your system, As far as Steam is concerned they won't be there. No registry entrys means that as far as your computer is concerned, it won't even know they're there either.

It won't be able to find them and will either try to download them from scratch, in which case you may as well download or it'll not work at all.

tgl1992 - i preordered the game from gamestop cuz i used some trade ins toward it so i cant preload it

deventarn - thanks for the advice i guess ill just download thru steam, gonna take longer then i want but gotta do what u gotta do

Assuming you don't have Steam installed on your computer, you should to be able copy and paste the folder from the external hard drive, as long as you follow the instructions https://support.steampowered.com/kb_article.php?ref=7418-YUBN-8129. I've done this before and moved my Steam folder from an old hard drive to a new one.

Once you enter the game key into Steam, even from the Retail Game, it will let you download it.

Really, you don't want to try installing it another machine then dragging it over. You will spend a lot of time on something that will not ultimately work.