[SOLVED] Can I have a program installed in both my computer and my SSD at the same time?

[gancho-en-la-puerta]

Hello all, this is my first post. I hope you are all well.

I just bought a 500GB SanDisk Extreme portable SSD. I want to transfer some programs from my Windows 8.1 laptop, which is very low on space, to my SSD. However, I don't want to uninstall from C:/ just yet; I want to be sure that the program can run from both locations. That way, if there is an error in the SSD installation, I can troubleshoot using the Laptop installation.

What I do not know, is: Can I have a program installed in both my computer and my SSD at the same time? And, if yes, can they both successfully run?

Thanks in advance for any help!

 

[mdd1963]

Applications are not normally installed to USB storage devices...; and they are not installed to two places at once, unless 'portable', in which case some programs, normally small, can be run from anywhere simply by double clicking on them.

You might be able to regain a few precious gigabytes by manually setting the properties of your C: drive's recycle bin size (within properties) to custom, and entering 2000 MB or so...

A quick run with CCleaner portable might find some junk to clear out...(be careful to make sure not to accept any offers of free Avast, etc)

 

[gancho-en-la-puerta]

Hi mdd, thank you for your reply. I will point out this:

Applications are not normally installed to USB storage devices...; and they are not installed to two places at once, unless 'portable', in which case some programs, normally small, can be run from anywhere simply by double clicking on them.

How come "applications are not normally installed to USB storage devices?" This is confusing to me, because I have read in so many places that people can run even Windows itself off an SSD. But I can't install applications to an SSD?

I'm not sure if that is only possible in an internal SSD; not an external one like the one I'm running. But still, most of the information I have read states that, if you have an SSD, it is recommended to run programs off the SSD, not your PC.

So, are you saying that I have to install in C:/ drive and move somehow to the external SSD? Or are you saying I can't flat out run a program off my external SSD?

As a side note, we have an SSD for our PS4 at home, and we play downloaded games off of it.

 

[USAFRet]

You can, but it is going to get very messy very quickly.

Installing a second copy on a different drive will probably end up sharing a lot of resources. .dll and others.
Uninstall one from the internal drive might uninstall that shared dll.

Trying to run from both locations is far worse than uninstalling from the internal drive and then installing on the external.


What size is the internal drive in the laptop?
If too small, a MUCH better solution is to replace that with larger.

 

[USAFRet]

Also, what else is on the laptop drive? Most applications don't take up a whole lot of space.
Other things do.

 

[USAFRet]

I'm not sure if that is only possible in an internal SSD; not an external one like the one I'm running. But still, most of the information I have read states that, if you have an SSD, it is recommended to run programs off the SSD, not your PC.

That refers to an internal drive. Not external, no matter what the type.