So about 2 years ago I bought and imported WA and W2 (the latter of which I never got to play because I couldn't get it to work) from the Team17 store

I have since lost track of my game box and cds, this didn't really concern me because I didn't seem to need them, I just copied the DATA folder from the CD into my worms directory and everything worked.

Now with the latest update, it's suddenly asking me for the CD again. After two hours of digging through old boxes I resolved to label the thing 'missing' to getting a nocd cracked exe which took about 5 minutes. It worked, but in-game I realized that everything in the data folder - voices, sounds, maps, missions, etc - was not being loaded

The DATA is right there, but the game won't use it. I DO have a legitimate right to one copy of Worms Armageddon, and I am not going to fork out another $20 for another cd. Anyone have any idea to how I can get the game to read the DATA folder like it did in 3.6.28.0?

Sorry to hear that. The problem is that even if you have had a legal version of the game, nobody on these forums is going to help you with a No-CD cracked game. It's a matter of principle (which could be better explained by people other than me). So you may just have to buy a new one. It probably won't cost you as much as you think, though. You could look on various auction websites for a good price. For example, I just found a Worms 2 + Worms: Armageddon game pack on ebay for $3.99AU + $9.99AU shipping.

There are no genuine CD versions of the game that come pre-patched to 3.6.28.0 or work without the CD. You got scammed into buying a pirate copy.

It wasn't preparched, I got the copy directly drom the Team 17 store page. It was actually here on this forum someone directed me to copy the DATA folder from the cd to the install directory in order to make the CD obsolete.

... oh well hopefully the new armageddon on steam is released soon

He means just copying the data folder to your hard drive wouldn't let the game run without the CD. You would have had to use a virtual CD (recommended method) or use a crack (unsupported and not recommended).

If you use Wormkit + wkfileoverride.dll then the game will load data from the games DATA folder instead of the discs but it won't eliminate the initial CD check.

It does however improve general load times etc. as it doesn't need the disc for any of that anymore.