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Moving WoW to external hardrive

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  • 16-10-2010 12:59am
    #1
    FTGFOP
    Registered Users Posts: 2,389 ✭✭✭


    WoW's been sprawling across my old, grey laptop's hard drive for a while now. With this latest patch it's easier to move WoW than make room for it.

    Will it play OK off an external HD (portable, usb connection)?
    Tagged:


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    #2
    Overheal
    Registered Users Posts: 82,379 ✭✭✭✭Overheal


    The loading times would be nigh unbearable. Possible yes, but inadvisable.


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    #3
    TheUsual
    Closed Accounts Posts: 2,288 ✭✭✭TheUsual


    Yeah I am not sure what the max speeds across USB 2.0 are now but the time to read/write to an external hard drive would be a pain in the arse.

    Maybe by a second hard drive if your computer will take one or move all your music/photos/music to the external hard drive ?


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    #4
    tman
    Closed Accounts Posts: 16,339 ✭✭✭✭tman


    I'd say it could be bearable on some external drives, wouldn't really fancy using something like the WD passport for it though...
    If the laptop is as ancient as you say, you might even be lucky enough to see a tiny improvement in load times. There's no harm in trying it out imo


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    #5
    FTGFOP
    Registered Users Posts: 2,389 ✭✭✭FTGFOP


    A WD passport is exactly what I have, and I swear it's quicker to hop between zones now! :D I'm not used to a lightning-fast experience so my 'quicker' might be painfully slow to you guys. It probably points to my laptop's HD needing a defrag.

    Outside of teleporting, ships, etc. how much does the game use the HD anyway?


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    #6
    jabberwock
    Registered Users Posts: 928 ✭✭✭jabberwock


    Overheal wrote: »
    The loading times would be nigh unbearable. Possible yes, but inadvisable.

    pure lies. Only reason it would ever be unbearable is if you had 1500 addons running and it would be slow on any computer with those. I have had WoW running perfectly fine on USB1.0 speeds.


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    #7
    Dr Bob
    Moderators, Computer Games Moderators Posts: 3,182 Mod ✭✭✭✭Dr Bob


    jabberwock wrote: »
    pure lies. Only reason it would ever be unbearable is if you had 1500 addons running and it would be slow on any computer with those. I have had WoW running perfectly fine on USB1.0 speeds.

    I used to run vanilla/TBC on an ext hard drive (an mp3 player in fact) back when I used to use that internet cafe in talbot st (I preferred to use my own install+addons) and It ran perfectly , not sure if thats still the case with wotlk though..


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    #8
    utnapishtim
    Closed Accounts Posts: 16 ✭utnapishtim


    I dont know how compitent you are with PC's, but in case you have not tried it or don't know much about spring cleaning your pc yourself I taught I'd mention this app;

    Tuneup utilitites 2010

    http://www.tune-up.com/products/tuneup-utilities/

    Free for 30 days but great at spring cleaning your pc without much effort. MIght be worth a checkout. It cleans on average 20gb for me every 3 months or so from my system drive because of updates, backups and the likes, temp files etc.

    There is also much you can delete in your WoW folder, old patches etc that you might want to free some space with


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    #9
    FTGFOP
    Registered Users Posts: 2,389 ✭✭✭FTGFOP


    Cheers!

    Right now it's playing fine off an external HD so I'm going to leave it like that. It makes more sense seeing as I don't play very often.


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    #10
    DRakE
    Registered Users Posts: 6,810 ✭✭✭DRakE


    i've got mine on my external hd, iomega 1tb.. plays great and its handy for when you're not at your own computer


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    #11
    TheDoc
    Registered Users Posts: 23,137 ✭✭✭✭TheDoc


    Have to say I'd never play it on an external again.

    I moved my folder externally twice when I got new pcs and when brining it back over there was absolute nightmare critical errors relating to permissions and the issues assosiating to that.

    Nightmare, I'd quicker reinstall all over again then move to an external .


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    #12
    Shougeki
    Registered Users Posts: 933 ✭✭✭Shougeki


    TheDoc wrote: »
    Nightmare, I'd quicker reinstall all over again then move to an external .

    FYI the new installer is actually quite quick. Had to install from scratch on a second PC over the weekend.


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    #13
    Onslaught
    Closed Accounts Posts: 45 ✭Onslaught


    Ive played with one before... last resort really...sometimes the ground doesn;t appear for me 0o but meh..


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    #14
    TheDoc
    Registered Users Posts: 23,137 ✭✭✭✭TheDoc


    Have a new external HD arriving, well my first

    Gonig to put backups of SC2 and WoW onto it for safety.

    But I'll play it from the main HD in my pc.


    Those SSD drives however sound interesting ;)


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    #15
    FTGFOP
    Registered Users Posts: 2,389 ✭✭✭FTGFOP


    I've had no problems since I moved it over to the external. So if anyone is thinking about I'd say it's worth a try, even if (from the above) your mileage may vary.

    The external I'm using is just a little Western Digital passport connected by usb. It was pretty much empty so I wasn't overwriting anything which may have contributed to my smooth experience.


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