Questions on external hard drive installation.

[socurious]

I apologize for starting a new thread, but I could not find a post that broached the subject of installing games to an external hard drive.  I had previously had Sims2 loaded on my old laptop.  My hard drive failed and my computer was sent to the manufacturer (with my copy of Sims2 in the DVD rom drive).  It happened twice after that, so I decided to get a new computer and an external hard drive and load it onto that.  Before doing so, I contacted EA games and it took them 3 weeks to respond with a mere "not suggested" response.  So I just directed the setup to install to the E drive.  No problemo.  However, I have duplicate folders on my C: and E: drives.  That seems rather unneccesary.

Do I need to have the base copy of the game on my C drive?  What do I need to have, where?  When I download anything they automatically load into the file on the C drive, but I have a copy of everthing on the external drive.  If it is duplicitous, what do I do to have everything in order?  I'm a little reticent to experiment since everything works well as it is.  

It's pretty obvious to me that most of the folks posting here have much more experience and knowledge about this computer stuff than I do, so if anyone has any suggestions, please respond.  I appreciate any help.  :worship:

[BeosBoxBoy]

Ok - the reason an extrernal drive is not recommended is simple.  A physical drive inside the case has a faster response time to data demands by the CPU and therefore the game runs better.  In the case of an external hard drive the game will be as slow as the connection between the computer and the hard drive - therefore expect choppy to awful performance.

As a means to back-up your game, this is a rock solid idea, but to play your game is a very poor idea.  Sure - there are some great high speed external hard drives, but since not all are alike, I can only give a generic answer.

It's not really all that technical, it is just like driving to New York City from New Jersey - the cable & connection between the external hard drive and computer case acts like a toll booth - slowing everything down.

If you have installed everything to Drive E: - the the stuff on Drive C: is indeed redundant; but if all you did was back-up to Drive E:, then the content on Drive C: is still necessary and the game will not run without it.

[socurious]

Thank you for your quick and detailed response.  The game does load very slowly, but I think it loads slowly even on my home computer.  However, the game play is not noticably slow, nor is it choppy.  I'm pretty pleased, given the constraints of my setup, with how well everything works.  

Your answer has helped a lot.  There are good reasons I come to Insiminator; the content is great, the people well informed and responses are clear, precise and quick.  Thank you very much for your help!

[FallenAngel86]

ah ok I was thinking of installing the game on both PC and have only one MyDocument folder for both. The game would access the DL through an RJ45 cable and a router seperating the 2 pcs.

[BeosBoxBoy]

NRJ - there are also some problems doing that way - lots of things are "possible" but not what the game was "designed" to do

[socurious]

Well, I have discovered a really great reason why one shouldn't try to install games on an external hard drive!  Today, for some mysterious reason, my laptop decided not to recognize the external hard drive.  Yikes!  Now I have no way to access anything.  Shazbutt!  I'd use a more harsh exclaimation, but this is a family friendly site.  I have tried for hours to figure out what is wrong, but no luck so far.  My advice, don't do it!