Steam Question

[iVVChewy9141VVi]

Anyone here running steam off a USB 3.0 External HDD?

 

Are you able to install the program on a external USB 3.0 hdd?

 

How is the performance?

 

 

My case does not have any more room for a extra HDD and I like to keep my stuff separate like below

 

OS in one HDD

DCS World 2.0 Partition of HDD

X-Plane 10 on the other Partition of the HDD

 

I wanted to get a external for Steam does anyone do this?

[TomOnSteam]

Anyone here running steam off a USB 3.0 External HDD?

 

Are you able to install the program on a external USB 3.0 hdd?

 

How is the performance?

 

 

My case does not have any more room for a extra HDD and I like to keep my stuff separate like below

 

OS in one HDD

DCS World 2.0 Partition of HDD

X-Plane 10 on the other Partition of the HDD

 

I wanted to get a external for Steam does anyone do this?

 

There is no need to make partitions to keep things separate. If you use folders you can utilize your HDD space as one big pool, which makes managing HDD space a lot easier :)

 

Both DCS and X-Plane (and most other apps) will place configuration, save files etc into your C:\User\username\AppData folder. So partitioning won't keep them any more separate than using folders, instead it makes it harder to utilize your free space.

 

I wouldn't recommend getting an external drive for any files which aren't portable. Like most programs, Steam will also place files into your user profile folder, so it will probably freak out anytime your external drive isn't plugged in.

 

Also external drives tend to cost more than internal. So if you can buy an internal drive (a much bigger one if you don't have physical room, and replace the older one). You can get 1TB for next to nothing these days.

 

 

 

Oh I just realised you must be running a laptop notebook and can't fit another drive in? In that case I'd still recommend putting all of your "data" onto the external drive to make rooms for programs on your internal drive.:thumbup:

Edited September 25, 2016 by TomOnSteam

[cichlidfan]

I have not done it, but using an external drive on a USB3 connection should work reasonably well. Unfortunately, I can't promise that you won't see some lag in certain situations. If you have lots of RAM then you won't see frequent terrain which would be your biggest hit, I suspect.

 

Steam is not an issue. You can define a game folder anywhere on your system and Steam will put the data there. So the technical aspect is not an issue though some performance hit might be.

 

If you have the disk space, then move past the partition mania (I had it many years ago, myself, still do with my desktop machines to an extent) and install DCS on an internal partition. When you have a laptop, you are AFAIK limited to two internal drives. Make the best of them, convert all to SSD if not already there, and use the space. Empty space above 10 percent of the drives capacity is of no value unless you are talking about a less than 100GB drive.

Edited September 25, 2016 by cichlidfan

[pacotito]

I have done it on my daughter's laptop. Long story short my wife got her a cheap laptop for Xmas. When I went to get her games and whatnot installed found out it only has 32gb storage. I got steam and origin installed and games as well. She plays games like minecraft, five nights at Freddy's, and the Sims. Aside from long load times keep in mind it was a usb 2.0 drive...it worked pretty good. I can't tell you how it would work with something more intensive.