External Hard Drive for Gaming??

cath_oh · Posted: Mon Mar 31, 2008 8:16 am Post subject: External Hard Drive for Gaming??

Pardon my ignorance (and apologies if this has been asked before) but is it possible to use an external hard drive as the drive to install a new game to? My son has bought a new game but does not have enough hard drive space to install it (without deleting some of the stuff currently on his internal hard drive) and asked me if buying an external hard drive might solve the problem. I have heard that these hard drives can be slow so this might cause problems - if it is possible at all. Any ideas?

Werebo · Posted: Mon Mar 31, 2008 10:11 am Post subject:

Allo cath oh Smile

External drives are mostly connected via the USB socket on the PC, so it will be slow for gaming Sad

However, all is not lost. Why not fit the drive as a 2nd internal drive??? Assuming the PC has 1 hard-drive and a CD/DVD drive, the new drive could be connected to the ribbon cable that connects the existing hard-drive to the motherboard.

You'll need to make sure that the new drive is set to 'Slave', usually a little 'jumper' connector on the back of the drive, where all the pins 'n' bits are. The drive should have a little diagram on the casing, explaining which pins need to be connected Very Happy

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cath_oh · Posted: Mon Mar 31, 2008 6:14 pm Post subject:

Thanks for your reply. I should have mentioned that the computer is a laptop so no second CD/DVD drive unfortunately.

HwyRogue · Joined: Mar 31, 2008 Posts: 2

If your hard drive is too small to support the installation of a game, it would seem that the laptop might not even run the game due to its age...

Remember, most newer games require a fair amount of RAM and dedicated video memory as well - laptops use shared memory so there is a good likelihood that your laptop won't run the game...

And indeed, an external HD is not a good way to run a game due to access times...

Werebo

Ahaah!! A laptop!! Please scrap the above info about adding a 2nd drive Wink

Depending on make/model, it might be possible to swap the drive for a larger one, but for some reason, laptop hard-drives tend to be a lot more expensive than standard PC drives. It would also entail having to either:

1} 'clone' an image of his existing drive, then put that image on his new drive, or....

2} Re-install Windows and copy all the saved work to the new drive, via a back-up CD/DVD, or

3} Fit an external USB hard-drive enclosure and move all the saved work - documents/pictures/music/whatever to the new drive and use that to save the work to. That should free up enough space to install a game or 2 on the laptop's main drive, assuming the laptop can run the games - see Hwy rogue's post above

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cath_oh

Thanks for the replies.

The laptop is just over a year old and fits all the specs required for the game other than the hard drive space. He already has a few games installed together with a lot of music (way too much obviously!).

I have suggested that the last option might be the best for him. He is apparently going to be required to edit a movie for one of his school subjects so I can't see any other way around it other than using the external hard drive.

Would any old external hard drive do or should I look for something in particular?

Thanks again!

Smile

Werebo

It's possible to buy an empty enclosure, then fit an IDE drive into into it. The only limit to the drive is your budget. If there's lots of music/movie files, the larger - the better Wink

cath_oh

Thanks Werebo and HwyRogue, will check out the options. I really appreciate your advice.

Smile

kida · Joined: Apr 03, 2008 Posts: 16 Location: Texas, U.S.

External harddrives are relatively cheap nowadays (cheaper than what they were back then). 80GBs should be more than enough to store pictures, music, and misc. files. If there are movies/videos, then yes the bigger the better.

If you're choosing the external enclosure way, then make sure you get the one that has matching connectors with the harddrive you're planning to purchase. For example, if you're buying a Parallel ATA (PATA) harddrive, then you'll need an enclosure with IDE connector. If you're buying a Serial ATA (SATA), then make sure your enclosure has a SATA connector, which is totally different from IDE.

Generally, you get more harddrive space and better pricing deals when you do enclosures than buying an actual external harddrive. Hope that helps some more Smile

cath_oh

Just to make sure I understand this.....the external enclosure connects to the laptop via a USB cable or some other way??

Werebo

cath_oh

Thanks for your help Smile