Question about backing up programs from C to external drive

[Memnoch]

I'm thinking of backing NWN1 (which is taking up about 10gig on my d: drive with all the CEP haks, mods, etc) to my external hard drive (g: drive) before uninstalling it, because I need to create about 8GHB of space on my d: drive to install Marvel Ultimate Alliance. Essentially I'm just going to do a straight copy of NWN1 from d: to g:. I'm planning to reinstall NWN1 on my d: drive after I finish Marvel UA.

So my question is this: if I do this - copy NWN1 to g:, uninstall it, and later copy NWN1 back from g: to d: (or at least my custom folders like the HAK, MOD, ERF, MOVIES, MUSIC, etc. will there be any issues with my registry? In other words, will NWN1 still work or will I have to reinstall it from scratch and then copy the custom folders into the main NWN folder?

I'm asking because it's a real hassle having to reinstall it - it would be so much easier for me to just copy it back.

[PurpleXVI]

Well, two options. Either you can just plain delete it and leave the registry entries, as opposed to an uninstall, then if you copy your NWN1 backup back into the exact same location, the registry entries, shortcuts, etc. should all work perfectly.

With the uninstall-involving option, you'll have to do a reinstall first and copy your backup over on top of that, however there's still a vague chance of stuff screwing up there, you'd definitely want to patch up the reinstall and such first, just so the registry's patch number and the install's patch number are the same.

[Memnoch]

Originally posted by PurpleXVI: Well, two options. Either you can just plain delete it and leave the registry entries, as opposed to an uninstall, then if you copy your NWN1 backup back into the exact same location, the registry entries, shortcuts, etc. should all work perfectly. With the uninstall-involving option, you'll have to do a reinstall first and copy your backup over on top of that, however there's still a vague chance of stuff screwing up there, you'd definitely want to patch up the reinstall and such first, just so the registry's patch number and the install's patch number are the same.

So the easier way is to:

1. copy NWN1 from d: to g:
2. delete NWN1 (including save folders, etc) in d:
3. when I want to play it again, just copy NWN from g: to d: (to the exact same folder location) again

Is this right?

[PurpleXVI]

Unless you do any sort of registry clean-up in the meantime(There are utilities for this) or such, and don't mind the clutter of having the non-functional shortcuts lying around, then yes, it should absolutely be the easier way.

[robertthebard]

Maybe just a novice question here, but what would be wrong with just cutting the whole NWN's install over to G:, and then changing the target of the shortcut to your G: drive?

[PurpleXVI]

Registry entries. He'd have to reinstall it all on the G drive to get them pointed there, or do a lot of registry editing where a few misclicks could screw up the entire install.

While the thing might still play, patches, installing and any sort of in-game downloads could start behaving oddly. It's also possible that it might not play at all, how sensitive programs are to bad registry entries tends to vary, and I haven't messed around much with NWN1 in that manner.

I also haven't tried running programs from external HD's before, but it's entirely possible that there could be problems with that, or at the very least slowdown, etc.

[Memnoch]

Originally posted by robertthebard: Maybe just a novice question here, but what would be wrong with just cutting the whole NWN's install over to G:, and then changing the target of the shortcut to your G: drive?

I tried that, and it didn't work, for the reasons Neb mentioned. Also, my g: drive is an external USB drive, so I'm guessing that will lead to performance issues as well...

[robertthebard]

Cool, just a thought. Seemed to be a lot easier.

[Memnoch]

Actually, has anyone ever tried to run a reasonably high-end game application (eg NWN, NWN2, Battlefield, M2TW, or any of the FPS games) on their external USB drive? What was the result?

I've been able to run Civ3 on my external drive, but I haven't really tried it with anything more recent than that (or something that needs a high frame rate).

[Callum]

Well I believe flash drives are not recommended for things like that because they only have a limited life span. After a certain amount of read/write functions, they start to die, and running programs from them is far more intensive than accessing documents.

Having said that, Vista has introduced HyperMemory (I think it's called) to use an external flash drive as extra RAM, so maybe I'm wrong, or the problem has been minimised in recent drives.