Games on new HDD

[im_thinking123]

I want all my games on a drive by itself. Can the complete game files just be cut and pasted to a new secondary drive I just bought? Or do I have to re-install all games on the new disk? And also should i partition the new disk from it's 500gb to say.. 250gb? I read something about faster read times when partitioned (true or false). If not ill just have to get all my saved game files and re-install all the games , but i'd appreciate any and all suggestion's , tips, and advice on the matter.

Thanks a lot.

 

[Wamphryi]

No the games cant be cut and pasted to a new drive they will need to be re installed. If your HDD is large enough and it should be at 500 GB then keep the games on the system drive. Some programs are fussy about the "path" and problems can occur when they are not installed to their default location. For instance you install a game to D:\Games instead of C:\Program Files (x86). Then you need to install a patch which may very well say it cant find the game as it is not in its default location.

 

[buzznut]

Good advice from Wamphryi.
As far as the partitioning goes, there are ways to "shorstroke" your hard drive to acheive better performance, unfortunately its not that great and usually not worth the hassle. I have friends that partition the hell outta their drives for various reasons, but faster usually isn't one of them. And with this comes the inherent headaches mentioned above.

Here's a few tips:
Even after a fresh install, defrag. This will help keep your drive tidy and organized. Don't forget to defrag again after loading software. It will become disorganized as you install stuff.

If operating with multiple drives, move your system cache to a drive that isn't the system drive. Depending on how much ram you have, this isn't the issue it once was with people running 1 or 2 gigs of ram. But still, if you move the system cache to another drive, the system drive won't be pinged by this activity when trying to do other things.

If using a SATA drive, ensure you are running in AHCI mode. This is something many people miss during install. It will be slower running in legacy IDE mode. You MUST be in AHCI mode prior to installing windows, after if you try to use this mode you'll hang at the windows logon window and never get into windows.

Finally, start saving for an SSD. It really does make a difference in overall system responsiveness (not just loading windows). The best bang for buck currently is in the 120GB range, I like the OCZ Vertex 2 and Crucial C300 for SATA II. Good price/performance/real estate ratio and under $2 per gig.

 

[Supermuncher85]

Some games are very self contained. Wow comes to mind. Having a hefty size of over 16gb, the folder can be moved without a problem and still work. Heck I've even run it from my Ipod on vacations. Others games however are tied in to so many different registry keys that it is pretty much impossible to move them and require a reinstall.