Game install on slave drive

Hardware and technical stuff
1

I am probably going to be wiping my C: drive soon and reinstalling XP. I’m installing a new game today, though, and I’m wondering if I can just install it on the secondary hard drive and run it from there, that way when I reinstall XP I won’t lost my progress.

I know this is probably a dopey question (I did try to search around for the answer), but is this possible, and if it is, is it practical? Will the game run slower running off the slave drive? Or is that entirely dependant on my setup. I’m not using anything fancy like RAID or anything, they’re just two IDE drives master/slave to each other.

Thanks again, guys.

“He is your slave?”

-Amanpour

2

It depends on the game.

Some games now install their save game files in the “My Documents” folder. So you lose saves if you wipe it clean without backing them up. Worse, some games hide their saves in the hidden “Applications Data” folder (Battle for Middle Earth comes to mind).

3

Man, I hate this stuff. I would prefer if none of my data ever went into the Applications Data folder. Outlook is the worst offender.

4

They put it there because that way you can actually support multiple user accounts on the same box. A little more complicated when you want to reinstall/switch boxes, but it’s an improvement in total.

5

Is there a way to determine whether a particular game does this (saves games in Application Data folder)? Is it in the documentation usually, or does mileage vary? Can you manually redirect a game–say, C&C Generals–to save games where you want them saved, the way you can indicate where you want your media player to rip your music files?

Even if having that kind of control is possible, is transferring saved games to the new install a simple matter of backing up the particular folder to a cd (or whatever) then dragging the files into the new folder on the new install? If so, I guess installing the game on the C: drive is no big deal, because I can just bring my saved games over when I reinstall XP (and the game).

Thanks again for taking the time.

“How about a nice game of chess?”

-Amanpour

6

In general, there’s no way to tell other than looking for likely files/searching google. They rarely document it.

7

Cockfuck. Thanks anyway, Jason.

-Amanpour

8

Good idea, bad execution. What if my C:\ is a high speed SCSI raptor drive with only 20 GB of space? I don’t really want crummy saves taking that up, now do I? I’d much prefer to have in-game “profiles” and keep each save unique to that profile like most other games do.

9

Nothing says that the “Documents and Settings” folder has to reside on C:. As an example, mine is on Z:, which points to my RAID-1 array.

Y’all just need to learn how to use Windows. :-) :-) :-)

10

A critical feature for any game. :roll:

11

A critical feature for any game. :roll:[/quote]Shift6!!! Welcome to spywareville, population: you!

12

A critical feature for any game. :roll:[/quote]

In many households, where multiple people share the same computer, this is a critical feature.

13

We’re in the “ugly middle portion where it’s not entirely done right”; in a few years hopefully longhorn will clean it up.

14

If you mention which game you’re installing, perhaps someone already has it and can tell you off the bat where it keeps its saves.

15

Welcome after, Microsoft. <hugs ~/.loki/>

16

Thanks mono. I mentioned it in the second post, but it’s buried. C&C Generals. I’d also like to throw Age of Mythology on there.

Regardless of whether I can salvage my progress/saved games, is it a problem to install and run a game off of your secondary hard drive?

“God has a hard on for Marines, because we kill everything we see. He plays His games…we play ours.”

-Amanpour

17

Absolutely not. I’ve been doing this forever with all my games. Unless your slave drive is a noticeably crappier model or something there shouldn’t be any difference.

18

You mean if they don’t cut that feature, right?