External Hard Drive Question

Joshthor

Joshthor

Frost Gate Guardian

Join Date: Nov 2007

Eternal Knights Alliance [RotK]

Me/

I have a question about a external hard disk drive. Both of my computers have almost full hard drives, so i am tempted to buy an external hard drive to install guild wars on it (plus music and video and other crap like that) i would also use this to play guild wars on a college computer between classes.

but before i get one i want to make sure i could in fact install it on the external hard drive and just plug it into a usb port and open guild wars and start playing.

also, if i need a certain type of external HDD, please tell me what type so i could do this. thanks much

tijo

tijo

Jungle Guide

Join Date: Feb 2007

Montreal

[CDDR]

R/

You shouldn't have any problems using an external hard drive. Just keep in mind that an external HDD isn't made to be carried around the same way a flash drive is. Moving your HDD too often without being careful could eventually break it.

Joshthor

Joshthor

Frost Gate Guardian

Join Date: Nov 2007

Eternal Knights Alliance [RotK]

Me/

thanks much yo

Trbayth

Ascalonian Squire

Join Date: May 2007

Fellows of Mythgar

Rt/

Something else to bear in mind especially if you run GW on a guest computer.

I put GW on my desktop by simple creating C:\GW, putting GW.EXE in that folder, then running 'gw -image'. The program created Start Menu entries and added entries to the Windows registry. So it will leave an 'audit trail' on the computer you ran it on.

Trb

Joshthor

Joshthor

Frost Gate Guardian

Join Date: Nov 2007

Eternal Knights Alliance [RotK]

Me/

oh, one more question, would i be able to do this on a flash drive too? i assume so cause of the external hard drive but just want to make sure

tijo

tijo

Jungle Guide

Join Date: Feb 2007

Montreal

[CDDR]

R/

Yes, you can, i know at least one person who sucessfully ran it from an ipod, so my guess would be that it would run from a flash drive too. The only thing that you have to keep in mind is that data trasfer is slower with a flash drive than with a HDD.

TEB Elite

Lion's Arch Merchant

Join Date: Apr 2007

California, USA

Mo/

Quote:
The only thing that you have to keep in mind is that data trasfer is slower with a flash drive than with a HDD.
External hard drives and flash drives (most usb) are limited to the same speeds as usb 2 allows. You wont notice a difference while playing guild wars from portable media, compared to playing on your installed hard drive.

Joshthor

Joshthor

Frost Gate Guardian

Join Date: Nov 2007

Eternal Knights Alliance [RotK]

Me/

Quote:
Originally Posted by tijo
Yes, you can, i know at least one person who sucessfully ran it from an ipod, so my guess would be that it would run from a flash drive too. The only thing that you have to keep in mind is that data trasfer is slower with a flash drive than with a HDD.
SERIOUSLY?!? an ipod!?! im going to do this instead then
whoo! this means i dont have to waste 50 odd dolla just to play guild wars (which has already cost me $200+). i have a 30gb ipod and ya know, still have like...22gb left :P lol gonna do that instead

thanks yo

Aerian_Skybane

Aerian_Skybane

Wilds Pathfinder

Join Date: Apr 2006

House of Caeruleous [HoC]

R/E

Hey, keep us posted on whether or not you got it to run .

gone

Guest

Join Date: Jan 2007

if you're gonna use an ipod, make sure you enable it as a storage drive.
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=61131

if you have IEE1394 (firewire & port) i'd use that as well. (if Ipod even supports it still)

jimmyboveto

jimmyboveto

Krytan Explorer

Join Date: Jul 2006

US

Legion of Avalon

W/

Not a good Idea to play GW off an external HD. It will take ages to load... Buy a second internal one such as what I did. Much cheaper for the amount of storage you get and isn't too hard to install.

Joshthor

Joshthor

Frost Gate Guardian

Join Date: Nov 2007

Eternal Knights Alliance [RotK]

Me/

Quote:
Originally Posted by jimmyboveto
Not a good Idea to play GW off an external HD. It will take ages to load... Buy a second internal one such as what I did. Much cheaper for the amount of storage you get and isn't too hard to install.
well as i stated on my FIRST post about this i want to play it on a college computer. and if i install anything on them after i log off it automatically uninstalls it. i have plenty of room on my hdds at home so im not worried about it. also, i dont care about load times, i mean, it would be nice if it was faster but i dont care at all about it

as for aerian, i tried it when i got home, and it worked first try, i just pulled my entire guild wars folder into my ipod after enabling disk use then i opened up guild wars from my ipod thing on my computer. so im happy.

ill post again tomorrow if i have any problems with it, (im planning on playing till 4ish after school at college)

Joshthor

Joshthor

Frost Gate Guardian

Join Date: Nov 2007

Eternal Knights Alliance [RotK]

Me/

works well at college computer too so its nice

Serenity Divinity

Serenity Divinity

Academy Page

Join Date: Jul 2007

E/

Quote:
Originally Posted by jimmyboveto
Not a good Idea to play GW off an external HD. It will take ages to load...
Guild Wars loads instantly for me and I have never run it on anything but my External Hard Drive.

Joshthor

Joshthor

Frost Gate Guardian

Join Date: Nov 2007

Eternal Knights Alliance [RotK]

Me/

yeah there arent any load speed problems with my ipod i think my ipods hard drive may even be faster than my hdd on my computer (now its old im not saying ipod is amazing but i loads all towns and areas faster than my hdd)

combatchuck

combatchuck

Lion's Arch Merchant

Join Date: Mar 2006

Mo/

On an NT-based system, if one were so inclined, it's actually possible to move the entire program directory, special user folders (My Documents, My Music, etc), and registry to a separate drive. Making Windows default to looking in those folders instead of the normal spot. You can also mount a disk as a folder on an existing file system , that leads to some interesting user space management with portable drives. How convenient would it be to have the same My Documents or Program Files folder on any computer you have an account on?

scrinner

Wilds Pathfinder

Join Date: Jan 2006

Please keep in mind that as soon as the drive is removed, guildwars will crash unless closed.

Josh

Josh

Desert Nomad

Join Date: Oct 2005

England, UK

D/Mo

Quote:
Originally Posted by scrinner
Please keep in mind that as soon as the drive is removed, guildwars will crash unless closed.
I think that's obvious mate..

Joshthor

Joshthor

Frost Gate Guardian

Join Date: Nov 2007

Eternal Knights Alliance [RotK]

Me/

well, i was planning on plugging in my ipod, starting guild wars, unplug it and run off and giggle about it, but since it will crash i guess i wont :P