Installer design

Non programmer here - but I had to post this where people can give some ideas how to tackle a big problem. Still on the home stretch for a game that's been in development for some time, and we unfortunately never thought ahead to how the installer would work. We've got Installshield Express 12, and would like to release for now exclusively as CD ROM. For the game to run, the exe has to be in the root folder, so basically each time someone runs the installer from a disc they get the full game on their machine, and installation takes roughly forever. Can anyone give any hints on other ways to prevent runaway piracy? We'd like the game to require the CD to be in the drive, and the only means we know of is to reconstruct the main exe linkage, so that the game data resides on the disc. Kinda too late to do all that. Any other options or hints out there, that won't take days to hash out? Thanks!


Ben