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Author Topic: How to install downloads onto an external hard drive?  (Read 3357 times)
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fantasia1980
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« on: August 22, 2007, 09:48:27 am »

Hi everybody! I just bought a new external hard drive. It's a Western Digital... 320 GB w/firewire. I have managed to download all of my Sims 2 games on there, which, if it helps to know, I have ALL of. My question is what folder do I put my downloads in? I've tried k:/thesims2/downloads, and I've tried k:/downloads. I would've thought that first one woulda worked, but it doesn't :dontknow: By the way, the letter that the drive shows up under is drive k: (just in case ya thought that's where I normally put all my downloads).

Anyway, I'd realllly appreciate any help I can get on this issue... my InSIMenator isn't showing up and I'm about to go insane Tongue Thanks in advance!

~fantasia1980
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MissLoaf
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« Reply #1 on: August 22, 2007, 10:49:37 am »

Did I get this right, you'd like to run the full game from an external harddrive?
Or do you only want to backup your whole game and content on that drive?

I'm no expert, but I think that if you really like to run it from there, all loading times will decrease to firewire limits. I don't have any numbers, but it should significantly be slower. Plus, the new drive will probably get pretty hot, hope it came with a cooling fan.

Anyway, to get your downloads to run, you will have to permanently move out your My Documents to the external drive. Right click on said folder and choose Properties and enter a new location path, like K:\My Documents\ .
This also means that all your files will be moved to the new location and every program / game having a folder there will address the new path in future.  

I would not recommend what you are planning, a new internal drive would have been a lot easier in my opinion, but perhaps you'll prove me wrong, I don't know. Good luck, though.
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ancienthighway
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« Reply #2 on: August 22, 2007, 11:54:29 am »

In the past, I've run completely from an external drive.  Normally I'd play on my desktop, but when I was traveling, I'd toss the laptop and external drive in my bags and have it when in the hotel for the evening.  Worked very well once I got the registry set up on both computers.

As MissLoaf says, you have to move your My Documents folder to the external drive in order to keep your downloads and game files there.  You could even keep the program files on the internal drive and your game files on the external if you so desired.
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fantasia1980
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« Reply #3 on: August 23, 2007, 10:18:25 am »

Quote from: ancienthighway;894301
In the past, I've run completely from an external drive.  Normally I'd play on my desktop, but when I was traveling, I'd toss the laptop and external drive in my bags and have it when in the hotel for the evening.  Worked very well once I got the registry set up on both computers.

As MissLoaf says, you have to move your My Documents folder to the external drive in order to keep your downloads and game files there.  You could even keep the program files on the internal drive and your game files on the external if you so desired.


The thing is, though, that I never had the game on this particular computer's hard drive in the first place. The game, until now, has only been on my computer in my room. When I downloaded the game to play on THIS computer, I downloaded it straight to the EXTERNAL hard drive. I don't even remotely think there's enough room on this computer's internal hard drive to put all my Sims 2 games on, but I wanted to be able to download things easier AND have the option of playing in here or my room. Buuuuuuuuut I dunno if that's gonna work :smt120 . I hope that gives you guys a little bit better insight as to what I'm hoping to do here. Oh, and about creating that new path... that's what I tried to do when installing the games themselves... didn't work that way. The only way it would work was if I simply put it under drive k: . Dunno if that changes anything, but thanks for all your help guys Smiley

~fantasia1980
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ancienthighway
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« Reply #4 on: August 23, 2007, 11:02:58 am »

When you installed TS2 on the external drive, it set up that computer to look for the game on the external drive.  On the computer in your room, it sounds like you've already installed TS2 so it is looking for the game on it's internal drive.  You should be able to play it on either computer without any problem.  If you still need to install TS2 on the computer in your room, there's another way to do it.

On the computer you used to install TS2 to the external drive:
Click Start, Run and type in regedit.
In the Registry Editor open HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\.  Right click on EA GAMES and select Export.  Save the file to a disk you can put in your room's computer.
Then right click on Electronic Arts and select Export.  Save it to disk too.

Take the disk and external drive to the computer in your room.  
Change the drive letter of the external drive to the same as it is on the other computer, so both say the external drive is drive K: or whatever.
Now start the Registry Editor (Start, Run, regedit).  Select the File menu, and Import.  Navigate to the disk you copied the two .reg files on and import one of them, then repeat for the second one.

Now both computers will run TS2 from the external drive.  

The last thing you need to do is move your My Documents location from the computer's internal drives to the external drive.  MissLoaf already told you how to do that.
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fantasia1980
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« Reply #5 on: August 23, 2007, 09:40:45 pm »

Quote from: ancienthighway;896005
When you installed TS2 on the external drive, it set up that computer to look for the game on the external drive.  On the computer in your room, it sounds like you've already installed TS2 so it is looking for the game on it's internal drive.  You should be able to play it on either computer without any problem.  If you still need to install TS2 on the computer in your room, there's another way to do it.

On the computer you used to install TS2 to the external drive:
Click Start, Run and type in regedit.
In the Registry Editor open HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\.  Right click on EA GAMES and select Export.  Save the file to a disk you can put in your room's computer.
Then right click on Electronic Arts and select Export.  Save it to disk too.

Take the disk and external drive to the computer in your room.  
Change the drive letter of the external drive to the same as it is on the other computer, so both say the external drive is drive K: or whatever.
Now start the Registry Editor (Start, Run, regedit).  Select the File menu, and Import.  Navigate to the disk you copied the two .reg files on and import one of them, then repeat for the second one.

Now both computers will run TS2 from the external drive.  

The last thing you need to do is move your My Documents location from the computer's internal drives to the external drive.  MissLoaf already told you how to do that.


ancienthighway:  It's not the games I'm having problems with though... it's getting the downloads to show up in the games.

hmfoust1s:  What I did was when it asked what destination I would like to d/l my games to, I clicked on Advanced User, then Browse. Then I clicked on my Western Digital, which happens to be drive k: on my computer... created a new folder and named it whatever the game was that I was installing (i.e. Nightlife... Seasons, what have you). Then when it begins to download it will tell you it is going to add some MBage of space to your computer's hard drive... let it do that, that's what identifies the game as YOURS. The game should play once you have installed the Base game and any EPs/ mini EPs you have Smiley hope that helps... if not, pm me and I'll try and figure out what went wrong.

~fantasia1980
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ancienthighway
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« Reply #6 on: August 23, 2007, 10:01:08 pm »

Quote
I've tried k:/thesims2/downloads, and I've tried k:/downloads

As you found out, neither of these methods work.  TS2 looks for Downloads, and all of the playable files within My Documents\EA Games\The Sims 2.  If My Documents is not on your external drive, and you don't have any downloads in the correct path on your internal drive, you'll never get any CC.

It's not clear if you've done that or not.
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fantasia1980
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« Reply #7 on: August 24, 2007, 11:29:24 am »

Quote from: ancienthighway;897030
As you found out, neither of these methods work.  TS2 looks for Downloads, and all of the playable files within My Documents\EA Games\The Sims 2.  If My Documents is not on your external drive, and you don't have any downloads in the correct path on your internal drive, you'll never get any CC.

It's not clear if you've done that or not.


Okay, okay... now I believe I get what you're saying. The answer to your question is no, I have not tried putting the downloads on the internal hard drive... I'll try that and see what happens. Either way, I'll letcha know Wink Thanks bunches!!!

~Fantasia1980
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fantasia1980
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« Reply #8 on: August 24, 2007, 01:16:12 pm »

Quote from: hmfoust1s;897728
I have the Sims2 downloaded on the external hard drive but when I go to put Nightlife on it, there's an error and it won't let me. I know that I have to move my documents folder and program file but I think I'm getting some of this backward lol When I put the expansion on do I make a separate folder for it? Or do I put it in my original folder? Bleh this is driving me insane  :smt120


When I downloaded mine to the external hard drive, I wasn't moving it from an internal hard drive. I started fresh with the external hard drive and just kept making new folders for each new EP. It would go like k:/The Sims 2... k:/University... k:/Nightlife...etc. Try that Wink
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fantasia1980
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« Reply #9 on: August 27, 2007, 11:17:04 am »

Quote from: ancienthighway;897030
As you found out, neither of these methods work.  TS2 looks for Downloads, and all of the playable files within My Documents\EA Games\The Sims 2.  If My Documents is not on your external drive, and you don't have any downloads in the correct path on your internal drive, you'll never get any CC.

It's not clear if you've done that or not.


Okay, I tried downloadeing CC to where I normally would if I didn't have the external drive (i.e. same place everybody else puts their downloads), and STILL nothing shows up Sad I've officially tried EVERY path I know of.:smt120
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christelalstrup
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« Reply #10 on: February 20, 2008, 02:53:30 pm »

Quote from: ancienthighway;897030
As you found out, neither of these methods work.  TS2 looks for Downloads, and all of the playable files within My Documents\EA Games\The Sims 2.  If My Documents is not on your external drive, and you don't have any downloads in the correct path on your internal drive, you'll never get any CC.

It's not clear if you've done that or not.



I have a similar problem. I did copy the My Documents folder to my external hard drive and put my downloads there but still cc isn't turning up in my game. I still have a My Documents folder on my c: drive, Could this be the problem?
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