Hi.
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No, games do not need to be installed on the OS drive.
No, games do not need to be installed on the OS drive.
Do video games installations need the windows drive?
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Ok thank you very much, the answer I was hoping for! So, I take it that means I can lets say install dragon age to a second SSD that windows 7 is not on, and it will run the same as if it was on the windows drive? Does it need to be in a folder called Program files, or that matters not at all?
Originally Posted by Syrillian  Hi.
No, games do not need to be installed on the OS drive. |
Ok thank you very much, the answer I was hoping for! So, I take it that means I can lets say install dragon age to a second SSD that windows 7 is not on, and it will run the same as if it was on the windows drive? Does it need to be in a folder called Program files, or that matters not at all?
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Yes and no. All games will need to install some items on your HD, even Steam games need some HD space. Eg saved games usually will be saved to 'My Documents'
You usually have the option to install the game at minimum or full in the custom install part and you get to select where you want them to go... mostly.
Syrillian - your a posting ninja or Im a slow typist
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You usually have the option to install the game at minimum or full in the custom install part and you get to select where you want them to go... mostly.
Syrillian - your a posting ninja or Im a slow typist
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The Folder can be called whatever you like.
For all intents and purposes (afaik) the game will run with the same efficiency.
I install all my games on a dedicated drive.
Originally Posted by Frost Ok thank you very much, the answer I was hoping for! So, I take it that means I can lets say install dragon age to a second SSD that windows 7 is not on, and it will run the same as if it was on the windows drive? Does it need to be in a folder called Program files, or that matters not at all? |
For all intents and purposes (afaik) the game will run with the same efficiency.
I install all my games on a dedicated drive.
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We have the freedom to install most software (especially games) to any drive letter we want and in any folder name we want - usually. I mean, there are special programs (not games) that might need the folder name to be a certain name, but this is kind of rare.
Originally Posted by Frost Ok thank you very much, the answer I was hoping for! So, I take it that means I can lets say install dragon age to a second SSD that windows 7 is not on, and it will run the same as if it was on the windows drive? Does it need to be in a folder called Program files, or that matters not at all? |
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When something is installed on D:\\ when Windows is on C:\\, that unfortunately doesn't mean that C:\\ can be reformatted and still have those games installed when Windows is re-installed. This is because that fresh installation won't have those games installed. Err, the fresh installation won't even know they're there.
Originally Posted by pyra I was wondering the same thing in a slightly different way (not sure if I am thread hijacking here) I wanted to install all my games on a separate hard drive so when I reinstall/upgrade windows I wont have to reinstall all my games but, a lot of game files (save games, config settings ect) are still on the windows drive, is there any way of setting a default folder on a seperate hard drive to windows for all these file to go? |
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Installing a game (or any software) also places it in the Add or Remove (or Programs and Features) control panel. It's literally installed into the operating system. So, if I install everything to my D:\\ drive, then reformat and re-install Windows, then that means I have to re-install everything.
Originally Posted by Frost I don't know if that would work though pyra, doesn't the game still install registry files or some such in windows? Wouldn't the game not work if you reinstall windows and not the game? |
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There are a couple of games that I installed on an external hard drive and used on more than one computer but, not all games will let me do this, I was just wondering if I could edit a config file maybe and make the games saved games ect save to a different folder, maybe not though.
Originally Posted by Frost I don't know if that would work though pyra, doesn't the game still install registry files or some such in windows? Wouldn't the game not work if you reinstall windows and not the game? |
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I'm thinking that there's a registry entry somewhere that's telling the game where to save the games, but I don't know what it is for any of my games.
Originally Posted by pyra There are a couple of games that I installed on an external hard drive and used on more than one computer but, not all games will let me do this, I was just wondering if I could edit a config file maybe and make the games saved games ect save to a different folder, maybe not though. |
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This might not be literally what you are asking for, but it might be an alternative solution that may work better for you.
In Windows 7 (not sure about Vista) if you right click on your My Documents folder, there is a location tab, and it will allow you to set the location of your My Documents folder to any location that you specify. Since this is where most Games choose to put saves, it will effectively allow your save game files (and anything else in My Documents) to exist in another location.
This is also handy if you ever wipe/reinstall Windows, because your My Documents will still be preserved (if you made the location on another partition), and then you would just have to do the above again to point it to the correct place after a reinstall.
If Vista doesn't have that feature, you could always go the symbolic link route. Which is a command line route to do the same as above.
Here's a guide on symlinks.
http://www.howtogeek.com/howto/windo...windows-vista/
If there are games that don't save to My Documents, or if you don't want to move your whole My Documents folder, you could go crazy with those symlinks and do it for only certain folders within My Documents or do it for any folder anywhere really.
Hope this helps
Originally Posted by pyra There are a couple of games that I installed on an external hard drive and used on more than one computer but, not all games will let me do this, I was just wondering if I could edit a config file maybe and make the games saved games ect save to a different folder, maybe not though. |
In Windows 7 (not sure about Vista) if you right click on your My Documents folder, there is a location tab, and it will allow you to set the location of your My Documents folder to any location that you specify. Since this is where most Games choose to put saves, it will effectively allow your save game files (and anything else in My Documents) to exist in another location.
This is also handy if you ever wipe/reinstall Windows, because your My Documents will still be preserved (if you made the location on another partition), and then you would just have to do the above again to point it to the correct place after a reinstall.
If Vista doesn't have that feature, you could always go the symbolic link route. Which is a command line route to do the same as above.
Here's a guide on symlinks.
http://www.howtogeek.com/howto/windo...windows-vista/
If there are games that don't save to My Documents, or if you don't want to move your whole My Documents folder, you could go crazy with those symlinks and do it for only certain folders within My Documents or do it for any folder anywhere really.
Hope this helps
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