Possible to install games and apps on an external HD?

TonyM16

TonyM16

TonyM16

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22 Jan 2006
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Hi. Does anyone know if you can install games and apps on a fast 250gig WD 7200rpm , 8mb cache external HD? Will the games and apps work just as if they were on an internal? If you disconnect the HD and use it ona nother PC what happens with the games and apps? What abot game performance how much of a hit compared to a regular internal HD? Like the caviear or Barracuda?
Thank you.
 
It's possible (it's just another drive letter) but I wouldn't recommend it unless it's eSATA or SCSI. USB2 will only give you about 20Mb/s throughput whereas an internal disk will give you at least 55Mb/s, more from a Raptor or 7200.10. For office type apps this isn't a big issue but for games where you have to load level data etc you'll notice a big difference.

I's unlikely that moving the drive to another machine will allow the installed programs to still work as the second machine won't have any registry settings, DDLs or anything else which is stashed on the windows partition by the installer.
 
rpstewart said:
It's possible (it's just another drive letter) but I wouldn't recommend it unless it's eSATA or SCSI. USB2 will only give you about 20Mb/s throughput whereas an internal disk will give you at least 55Mb/s, more from a Raptor or 7200.10. For office type apps this isn't a big issue but for games where you have to load level data etc you'll notice a big difference.

I's unlikely that moving the drive to another machine will allow the installed programs to still work as the second machine won't have any registry settings, DDLs or anything else which is stashed on the windows partition by the installer.
Click to expand...

Thank you.

I bought a usb 2.0 one. My Pc does actually have a esata on the back but I didn't see any external HD's that have it. I suppose you have to make your own external out of an internal with an enclosure right?
Scsi was out of the question as it looked damn expesnsive.

As far as games go I guess it won't be worth then. I was kind of hoping that I would be able to install some games on it without a performance hit as my current PC's HD is only 74gig(raptor) which is pretty far away from being enough. Looks like I will have save up for that 150gig(raptor) one after all.
 
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