External Hard Drive Questions

[MrEco]

Alternate thread title: MrEco's newest question that makes him look dumb.


So I'd like to buy an External hard drive soon. I just want to clarify some things.


So let's say I was going to take a game from GOG.com and copy the file from my PC's hard drive over to the external one. Once I've done that, if I delete the file from my internal hard drive and at any point try to launch the game will it automatically detect the files on the external drive and work like normal?

Second. Since I keep all of my GOG.com games in a single folder could I just copy over that folder, skipping the hassle of moving game files individually, and still have it work without issues?

Lastly, is there a specific brand or type of external hard drive I should look for? Or will anything work, so long as it's USB 3.0 compatible? Also do I have to get one specifically designed for laptops, or are they universal (So to speak)? In particular Amazon seems to have some pretty good deals on Seagate models (Ex: 1TB drive going for $70).



/I'm the most PC illiterate PC gamer that ever lived

[Ivo]

If you have games already installed, and move those folders, probably it won't work so well as the old path to the files may be registered somewhere. But you should be able to run newly installed (or re-installed) games from your external hard drive.

It seems you have a laptop, so you don't want an internal drive for that reason.
There are different types of externals - typically there are smaller ones which get power supply from the USB connection, and some larger ones that have a separate power supply.

If you don't want to move around with the external, maybe consider one with separate power supply. In my experience, the ones that feed themselves from USB connection are sometimes finicky with USB ports, and this may be an issue for laptops in particular. Some of your USB plugs may not supply enough power. But I don't think you should be too worried about it as usually at least one plug will do that, or the drive comes with a Y-cable that lets you double-plug it to USBs to get enough power.

[isiolia]

So let's say I was going to take a game from GOG.com and copy the file from my PC's hard drive over to the external one. Once I've done that, if I delete the file from my internal hard drive and at any point try to launch the game will it automatically detect the files on the external drive and work like normal?

There's not auto-detection. Windows programs that are installed tend to put entries in the registry indicating what the installation direction was. There may also be .dll files that get registered and so on. If that stuff gets moved, and you don't change the registry entries to point to the new location, the installation gets broken.

'course, not everything actually does that, so it could depend on the game install in question.

Regarding type of drive, they aren't made only for laptops or only for desktops. You're mostly looking at two choices:

Smaller enclosures containing a 2.5" HDD, usually powered via USB, and larger ones that use 3.5" desktop HDDs.
The smaller ones are much more suited for laptop use, due to fitting into a laptop bag more easily and only needing to get plugged into your computer instead of needing to find an outlet.
The larger ones may include additional interfaces like Firewire or eSATA, and are usually higher performance.

Depending on what laptop you have though, you may also be able to install a second internal drive in place of your optical drive or something (some are modular, some, like Macs, may have a kit for it).

[MrEco]

So let's say I was going to take a game from GOG.com and copy the file from my PC's hard drive over to the external one. Once I've done that, if I delete the file from my internal hard drive and at any point try to launch the game will it automatically detect the files on the external drive and work like normal?

There's not auto-detection. Windows programs that are installed tend to put entries in the registry indicating what the installation direction was. There may also be .dll files that get registered and so on. If that stuff gets moved, and you don't change the registry entries to point to the new location, the installation gets broken.

Ah, okay. I was worried that might be the case.

But let's say I just straight up uninstall the game completely, then re-install it onto the external drive (Meaning the installation direction should be pointing to their spot on the external hdd, if my understanding is correct). Then so long as I have the external drive plugged in to my computer, everything should work fine?

[MrPopo]

The GOG games through Dosbox are much easier to move over; you just need a new shortcut for the new location that launches Dosbox with the appropriate conf file. Note that the shortcuts in the Games Explorer won't work if you move them over. Any native Windows games are less likely to work (even from launching the game's exe directly) because, as mentioned, many games put some absolute paths in the registry that they need to function.

Note that the GOG installers let you install to an alternate location.

[samsonlonghair]

I don't use GOG, so take this with a grain of salt. Here, I'm assuming that games from GOG work (more or less) like any other windows application.

You want to back up the installer you downloaded and back up your save game file. Once you have both of these backed up onto your new external hard drive, you can uninstall your game and re-install on any drive you like.

Someone on GOG forums posted these instructions for finding your save games:

C:\Users\your_username\AppData\Local\VirtualStore\Program Files\GOG.com\MM VI Limited Edition.
The AppData folder is usally hidden by default, you'll have to go to folder options and tick the checkbox for 'Show hidden files folders and drives'.

YMMV

There's not auto-detection. Windows programs that are installed tend to put entries in the registry indicating what the installation direction was. There may also be .dll files that get registered and so on. If that stuff gets moved, and you don't change the registry entries to point to the new location, the installation gets broken.

I recommend users don't make any edits to windows registry unless you are 100% sure you know what you're doing. You can render windows inoperable if you screw up the registry. Just use the uninstaller built into windows.

As far as what type of external hard drive, Seagate or Western Digital are name brands that have been making hard drives for years. Regardless of maker, any hard drive can fail (and will given enough time). This leads me to my next point:

Instead of external hard drives, consider cloud storage. Google and Microsoft both have decent cloud storage where you get X number of gigabytes for free, and you can upgrade to a paid monthly plan if you need more space. Dropbox is the big name in cloud service, but I personally find them annoying.

[MrPopo]

Someone on GOG forums posted these instructions for finding your save games:

C:\Users\your_username\AppData\Local\VirtualStore\Program Files\GOG.com\MM VI Limited Edition.
The AppData folder is usally hidden by default, you'll have to go to folder options and tick the checkbox for 'Show hidden files folders and drives'.

YMMV

If you have games installed using the v1 installer (so they install under C:\Program Files) then with default UAC settings your save games will be there. If you have games from the v2 installer (under C:\GOG Games) then the save files will be under the game directory itself.

Note that more modern games on GOG will probably install somewhere under My Documents\My Games.