Could an external hard drive run games?

[EriCartman13]

I have a very simple question. Can you run games off of an external hard drive. I play World of Warcraft and many other games. My computer, which is a laptop, only has 40gb of space. I don't have anymore room for patches or anything else. So I was wondering if I could run games off of an external hard drive. I am running Windows XP. Thanks in advance.

[fry]

yes you can, it's doesn't matter for window where your game is installed. you even can install the game on dvd)) but it would work very slow.

[goldeagle2005]

I think we're going a bit too far about installing a game on DVD. Have you actually installed a game on a DVD before?

[boobcat7]

I have the same problem. Is all I need to do is install it onto it?:?: :?: :?: :?:

[goldeagle2005]

If you mean a DVD, then the answer is No. Howevr, you caninstall games onto internal and external hard drives without any problem.

[Comatose]

I have installed a game on a DVD before.... the results were uh..... well, less than desireable.

[Fudge22]

I just installed world of warcraft too, And i barley do not have enough room on my internal hard drive. So if i was to get a external hard drive would it be able to store the rest of the patch from the game? Or would i have to install it into the external drive? Please reply and thanks......

[goldeagle2005]

youd need to uninstall the game and then reinstall it completely on the external drive...

[ammpgm]

Can someone tell me what I am doing wrong I installed the game on my external but it still installs it on my internal hard drive. It takes all my room and makes me computer do weird things?

[goldisgreat]

:cry: :!: i need to install rct3 but i have no room in internal so i need to know will it run on external and how do i get it there?:!: :cry:

[firestorm613]

when uninstalling a program, the best way to do so is by going to control panel > add or remove programs. once you are there, you can easily find your program, in this case warcraft, and click uninstall or remove or wtvr it says there.
If you already screwed something up and its not on the list, the second best thing is to look for it in --- my computer>drive c:>program files and then look for either the company that makes the game, or the name of the game itself. go into that folder and see if it has an uninstall icon. if you still cant find it, you can just delete the whole folder (of the game) hence deleting the whole game off your hard drive. the downside is that I dont think the registry removes it also, so there will be some tiny left-overs.

Now about RCT3, you can easily install it onto an external hard drive. when the hard drive is plugged in and turned on, you will see a new letter for that drive, say F:
so now, you know you wanna install it onto drive F: so when the installation is about to begin, it asks you where you wanna install the game so you type in F: and you are good to go. you will probobly wanna first create a new folder in F: so the game installs in it, not just all over the drive, so just make a folder and call it watever u want, like RCT3 and then install the game into there.
Hope that helps for you guys....
:)
-Jake

[goldisgreat]

when uninstalling a program, the best way to do so is by going to control panel > add or remove programs. once you are there, you can easily find your program, in this case warcraft, and click uninstall or remove or wtvr it says there.
If you already screwed something up and its not on the list, the second best thing is to look for it in --- my computer>drive c:>program files and then look for either the company that makes the game, or the name of the game itself. go into that folder and see if it has an uninstall icon. if you still cant find it, you can just delete the whole folder (of the game) hence deleting the whole game off your hard drive. the downside is that I dont think the registry removes it also, so there will be some tiny left-overs.

Now about RCT3, you can easily install it onto an external hard drive. when the hard drive is plugged in and turned on, you will see a new letter for that drive, say F:
so now, you know you wanna install it onto drive F: so when the installation is about to begin, it asks you where you wanna install the game so you type in F: and you are good to go. you will probobly wanna first create a new folder in F: so the game installs in it, not just all over the drive, so just make a folder and call it watever u want, like RCT3 and then install the game into there.
Hope that helps for you guys....
:)
-Jake

thx

[adawehi]

we have a 200gig external harddrive and we still have a problem with the game wanting to download to the internal drive. my computer already runs slow, and i want to play a game, but i cant because it wont load from the external drive because it loads the drives to my internal instead of onto the external with the game. can anyone help me with this problem?

[shadysoldier]

......how to get it their...when it prompts you during instalation you select your external hdd

[slaflamme]

I too have a laptop filled to the brim (60gig). I am shopping for an external hard drive and am looking at the WD 500GB My Book Essential Edition 2.0. My question is this: does it matter whether the connection is USB, firewire (400 in my case), or Sata when playing HC games off of the external?
:-/

[Smoothy104]

Hey just wondering in specifics how to get wow on my external hard drive? plz send me a message ... ty vm

[dadrian]

Wow works if you copy it from another drive. So you don't need to install it. Same for Dota. I've done this with quake2, 3, and some other games too. Some other games may need you to install them on the removable drive, but that's no big issue, right?

[MCBSKF]

I'm thinking about getting an external drive for space to play games, but I have a question. If I install games onto the external and it dies, will that mean that I can't install them later onto my internal? I'm worried it will die without me being able to uninstall them and that then my internal will tell me something needs to be uninstalled.

[dadrian]

Once installed on the external drive, you don't need to install it on the internal one. The games install correctly in the operating system. It's possible that you can't play all of them on another computer, without installing there also.

[hotnoob]

I've got all of my games on a 2 terra HDD (2000 gigs) and every thing works extremely well for me, with the help of some programs i made to go along with it.

I've got a program that replaces the shortcuts, adding a quick start up routine so that the games work correctly when going from computer to computer. The program simply checks the current computers registry keys upon start up, then add the appropriate registry keys, which i've manually added to .reg files for each of my games. So if they current computer doesn't have the right keys, they are installed, and the program does account for drive name changes. Once the registry key's are in place, the software then launches the designated software.

So in short, i've got a custom extremely fast installation process for all my games to ensure comparability with every computer... so in essence, I plug my HDD in at my friends house, and can access and play any of my games without going through the slow installation process.

As for speed, the only limiting factor is the USB2 port, which is already fast enough. On my own computer i've been able to boost my transfer speeds to 150 megabytes per second, which is more that sufficient for any game. Your more likely to be having limitations due to your proc, ram, graphics, and what ever else the game needs... even if your computer only has a 20 megabyte per second read rate.

And yes, u can run a game on a DVD, but the last time i tried, it takes some special software to ensure the software is able to write files to the DVD when saving n such... I havn't tried it on vista tho...

[dadrian]

If you need speed, you go for the esata, if your laptop has such a port. firewire is faster too than usb, no matter what others say. the teoretical 400 MB/s speed is way better than the 480 MB/s theoretical speed of the usb. I have no clue why, mathematics is not the answer. another point for the mac over the pc...(firewire is originally an interface from apple)

[Point Red]

eSATA is the one of solution.

And easiest way is, move data (folder) to external drive,
and create shortcut link from original(internal hd) point to new point(external hd).

[SilentRedsDuck]

one problem ive been having is updating games like sims 3 and world of warcraft. any tips without having to uninstall and reinstall things?

[Kuraikaos]

When you're installing said games it asks you to designate a directory to install to, just click browse and ok on your external HDD. If it doesn't ask you to designate it there should be an "Advanced" or "Customize" button that should help you.

[LauraWelch]

Yea so i am quickly running out of space for my PC games....i had only 80gb on this laptop, and was thinking of getting an external hardrive...Can someone help me on a few points:

How would this affect my steam games if i was to load some games onto the external hd..(bearing in mind my steam account is on the internal HD on my laptop)...not sure how that would work??

[abacusdheda]

yes you can definitely play games installed on external hard disks.
The thing is, game files are loaded onto your RAM.(you must have seen "loading.." screen) Now it depends on your RAM size that how frequent your RAM runs out of space and consequently how frequently it looks the game files on your external hard disk(which drastically reduces speed). generally, if you have enough of RAM then you dont need to worry about this.
In short, for normal graphic games the games are absolutely playable.
Same is valid for pen drives.

[Sam the greater]

After it is installed In to the external hard drive can you simply plug the external hard drive into another computer and play or are you stuck to one computer

[jwenting]

After it is installed In to the external hard drive can you simply plug the external hard drive into another computer and play or are you stuck to one computer

That would depend on the software. If it writes to any location outside that external drive and needs that data to run, it won't work anywhere else.
If it somehow links itself to the computer it was installed on (anti-piracy checks based on things like CPU serial numbers, etc. etc.) it won't work anywhere else.

I'm sure there are other reasons why it might not work elsewhere.

[wildy159]

I have a serious issue. my computer is like 5 years old. i have 60pound and im going to buy an external hard drive something like 200-500gig. i plan to put like my world of warcraft vent and starcrafts on this drive as my main drive internal one in my pc is full so full i cant dl patches :{ so yer if i put my wow on my drive ive been told about speed rates will it lag? i have 2 rams not that bad but nor good either and my other hardware is quiet frankly sh*t so will wow work fine or not.

Reply fast plz and thanks alot

[crazykirk42]

I'm actually amazed I found this forum. I'm trying to do that exact same thing which is install World of Warcraft on my external hardrive (my iPod that is) due to my laptop only having 55g and for some reason thats not enough. Anyway I uninstalled it off my laptop and reinstalled it onto my iPod (which is also an external hardrive). Only one problem... after it downloads the newest patch (which is a mean one 4.6gb just about) it says that it can't create a "<temporary data>" folder. Also something about can't run off the installer. Now I did transfer the installer onto the iPod (I downloaded an installer due to me losing the discs for the Original WoW and BC Expansion). If anyone has had this same problem then that'd be incredible because I figured my laptop would be the only piece of crap that would produce such a dilema. Hopefully someone out there with the knowledge of computers and what not will be able to assist me. I apologize for this super long reply to your thread/forum.