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Runing games off an external HD

GR_ZombieGR_Zombie Krillin ItRegistered User regular
edited August 2008 in Help / Advice Forum
Hey all, I've been thinking lately about buying an external HD to store some of my animation projects on, and I had a quick question for the more computer savvy people here: Could I install a game on the external HD and then play it from there without installing it on the computer the HD is plugged into?
For example, I just wiped all my computers after a catastrophic viral infection, and if I could install World of Warcraft once instead of 3 times I'd definitely prefer it. Any help is much appreciated.

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GR_Zombie on

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    the cheatthe cheat Registered User, ClubPA regular
    edited August 2008
    i think so, i can install games on my other partition. and my friend has done it on a secondary internal hard drive. i don't see why not. you don't have to install them on the same hard drive as windows, is what i'm getting at.

    oh but what you're suggesting probably won't work because the registry information will be on the windows drive...

    the cheat on
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    Dark ShroudDark Shroud Registered User regular
    edited August 2008
    GR_Zombie wrote: »
    Could I install a game on the external HD and then play it from there without installing it on the computer the HD is plugged into?
    Short answer, No. There are factors of Registry keys and more importantly the DRM most games come with.
    Other then that you can play games stored on external hard drives no problem.

    I recommend Firewire 800 cases for this, they get better performance than USB. Especially if you're doing video editing that will need to be saved/transfered to the drive.

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    JNighthawkJNighthawk Registered User regular
    edited August 2008
    Dark Shroud wrote: »
    GR_Zombie wrote: »
    Could I install a game on the external HD and then play it from there without installing it on the computer the HD is plugged into?
    Short answer, No. There are factors of Registry keys and more importantly the DRM most games come with.
    Other then that you can play games stored on external hard drives no problem.

    I recommend Firewire 800 cases for this, they get better performance than USB. Especially if you're doing video editing that will need to be saved/transfered to the drive.

    Your load times will be atrocious if you play off an eternal HD.

    JNighthawk on
    Game programmer
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    pacbowlpacbowl Los AngelesRegistered User regular
    edited August 2008
    I know WoW will run just fine from an external portable HD. Other than the load times being a bit slower, it works great. Just copy it on over from your local install.

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    MoudisMoudis Registered User regular
    edited August 2008
    Generally it'll work alright, but I'd recommend going with eSATA if at all possible.

    Moudis on
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