Solve : :) New External Hard Drive?

1.	Solve : :) New External Hard Drive?
Answer» I finally bought an external hard drive for my poor little lap top that has almost choked on its C drive. My goal is to get all, or almost all of my games onto my TOSHIBA Canvio. So far I have installed 1 game! This is a big accomplishment for me. I opened the game in its new location and played it to make sure it works. In the past, when I knew absolutely nothing about what I was doing, I tried moving games onto other devices because I didn't understand that they have to be installed and I didn't know what the difference was. Because of the moving here and moving there, what's left on my C drive and flash drives are game files but not necessarily executable games because the files might be scattered about. I might have deleted files because I didn't know what they were and created new files of things I thought LOOKED similar though they were actually from different games. 1. How can I make sure I'm deleting from the C drive everything related to the game I successfully installed on my E drive? I tried "saving the search for all files named Luxor" expecting I would get a list of the files, but what I actually got saved is more like a short cut for searching the C drive again. Do I have to generate the list again, find each file one by one, and delete it? Some of the files are probably duplicates since they were copied, moved, moved back, etc. but located in various places. 2. For all the other games, how do I make sure I've gathered up anything I "moved" to flash drives, in case they're my only copy of a file? How do I get all of a game's files back in one place on the C drive in case that's the only way to get the executable game onto the E drive? Well.. it would be a monumental job just to manually locate all the registry entries for the installed games on your COMPUTER... and then change them so they point to the game's new location. Quote from: Starwind51 on December 27, 2011, 05:13:38 PM 1. How can I make sure I'm deleting from the C drive everything related to the game I successfully installed on my E drive? I tried... Most games have save files stored in "My Documents..." wouldn't it be better to reinstall the games you want on your external drive and then just uninstall them from your computer, and then put the save file in its new location wherever the new game INSTALL specifies? All the moving of files will eventually get you confused... Quote from: Starwind51 on December 27, 2011, 05:13:38 PM 2. For all the other games, how do I make sure I've gathered up anything I "moved" to flash drives, in case they're my only copy of a file? How do I get all of a game's files back in one place on the C drive in case that's the only way to get the executable game onto the E drive? the setup.exe is your friend... If I moved a single file out of a massive game collection and then came back a few months later I would be having a hard time testing each and every game for a missing DLL...So I suggest you start all over again, i.e. reinstall all the games that you can remember you have moved files out of... You can do what I do with my games-just create an ISO of your game install disc and save it to a folder on your hard drive. That way you won't have to worry about losing or damaging your fragile setup disc. These are games that didn't come from a disk, just a download from the game website - Puzzle Inlay, Alchemy (don't laugh), that sort of thing. If I lost some of them I wouldn't cry, I would just be out the money. The more complex games I'll leave on the C drive (at least until I know I can install them on the E), but aside from games I don't know of much else I can get off the C. Almost all my personal files and photos I took off already, and my biggest program, MS Streets and Trips I'll leave on the C. But right now I only have 867 MB free. I know I can't really assume that if a game I had on the C and now have on the E drive is fully installed just because it starts playing well, I have to go with it. But I still have files with some of these game names on the C. Sometimes it's because I or a remote technician make copies of the games, some are the result of me trying to move the games and trying to move them back. So I really want to gather up the junk and delete it. Off hand I would say I have about 10 original games, at most.

Answer»

I finally bought an external hard drive for my poor little lap top that has almost choked on its C drive.

My goal is to get all, or almost all of my games onto my TOSHIBA Canvio. So far I have installed 1 game!

This is a big accomplishment for me. I opened the game in its new location and played it to make sure it works.

In the past, when I knew absolutely nothing about what I was doing, I tried moving games onto other devices because I didn't understand that they have to be installed and I didn't know what the difference was. Because of the moving here and moving there, what's left on my C drive and flash drives are game files but not necessarily executable games because the files might be scattered about. I might have deleted files because I didn't know what they were and created new files of things I thought LOOKED similar though they were actually from different games.

1. How can I make sure I'm deleting from the C drive everything related to the game I successfully installed on my E drive? I tried "saving the search for all files named Luxor" expecting I would get a list of the files, but what I actually got saved is more like a short cut for searching the C drive again. Do I have to generate the list again, find each file one by one, and delete it? Some of the files are probably duplicates since they were copied, moved, moved back, etc. but located in various places.

2. For all the other games, how do I make sure I've gathered up anything I "moved" to flash drives, in case they're my only copy of a file? How do I get all of a game's files back in one place on the C drive in case that's the only way to get the executable game onto the E drive? Well.. it would be a monumental job just to manually locate all the registry entries for the installed games on your COMPUTER... and then change them so they point to the game's new location.
Quote from: Starwind51 on December 27, 2011, 05:13:38 PM

1. How can I make sure I'm deleting from the C drive everything related to the game I successfully installed on my E drive? I tried...

Most games have save files stored in "My Documents..." wouldn't it be better to reinstall the games you want on your external drive and then just uninstall them from your computer, and then put the save file in its new location wherever the new game INSTALL specifies? All the moving of files will eventually get you confused...
Quote from: Starwind51 on December 27, 2011, 05:13:38 PM

2. For all the other games, how do I make sure I've gathered up anything I "moved" to flash drives, in case they're my only copy of a file? How do I get all of a game's files back in one place on the C drive in case that's the only way to get the executable game onto the E drive?

the setup.exe is your friend... If I moved a single file out of a massive game collection and then came back a few months later I would be having a hard time testing each and every game for a missing DLL...So I suggest you start all over again, i.e. reinstall all the games that you can remember you have moved files out of...
You can do what I do with my games-just create an ISO of your game install disc and save it to a folder on your hard drive. That way you won't have to worry about losing or damaging your fragile setup disc. These are games that didn't come from a disk, just a download from the game website - Puzzle Inlay, Alchemy (don't laugh), that sort of thing. If I lost some of them I wouldn't cry, I would just be out the money.

The more complex games I'll leave on the C drive (at least until I know I can install them on the E), but aside from games I don't know of much else I can get off the C. Almost all my personal files and photos I took off already, and my biggest program, MS Streets and Trips I'll leave on the C. But right now I only have 867 MB free.

I know I can't really assume that if a game I had on the C and now have on the E drive is fully installed just because it starts playing well, I have to go with it. But I still have files with some of these game names on the C. Sometimes it's because I or a remote technician make copies of the games, some are the result of me trying to move the games and trying to move them back. So I really want to gather up the junk and delete it. Off hand I would say I have about 10 original games, at most.

Solve : :) New External Hard Drive?

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