External HDD & Games, OSs

Peter Tsang · 8 Feb 2009 at 17:56

Now I have bought this My Book 1TB eSATA hard drive, originally thought was to install all the adventure games into this drive so that any time I like to play any of them, I just hook it up to my desktop and then enjoy.

But my ambitions now is expanded. It is still being "FULL FORMATTED" when I am writing this, so I am just curious if it is workable and performing if I install other games like Rise of Nations, would that do? I mean more or less Rise of Nations is a RTS games and requires more or less disk access from time to time I guess...would installing the game and running the game from an external hard drive impact the performance?

ChrisLX200 · 8 Feb 2009 at 19:24

If (and it's a big 'IF') you can reliably get it work via eSATA then you're OK, if you're reduced to using USB or Firewire then yes, it will hit performance quite badly. I'm saying this because I have a MyBook 1TB and I'll be **** if I can get it to work via eSATA.

Peter Tsang · 9 Feb 2009 at 15:39

I have just installed a game called "Strike Fighter Project 1" and it worked very fast not the same speed of my VelociRaptor of course but fast enough to notice that it is faster than the USB drive.

By the way, can I power on MyBook after I powered on my PC? Currently, I power on the drive before I power on the PC

ChrisLX200 · 9 Feb 2009 at 16:32

Via eSATA? For hot plugging you need to have AHCI enabled in motherboard BIOS, and enabled in Windows, then you can plug/unplug as you like. Otherwise, yes - it needs to be powered up before you boot.

Peter Tsang · 9 Feb 2009 at 17:15

ChrisLX200 said:
Via eSATA? For hot plugging you need to have AHCI enabled in motherboard BIOS, and enabled in Windows, then you can plug/unplug as you like. Otherwise, yes - it needs to be powered up before you boot.

I found out that with P5Q Deluxe, if I enable AHCI, my internal WD VelociRaptor cannot be detected!

How do I enable AHCI from within Windows?

MyBook is not on while I am writing this. So while I am still have my PC on, I need to shut it down then powr up MyBook then powerup PC again is that it?