Installing software suites on external hdd's, pros/cons ? ... [SUCCESS]

[vhelp]

Hi everyone

Current setup:

1. 160g hdd
2. root: 10g partition, with xp home sp2
3. software: 50g partition 1
4. capture: 90g partition 2
...
5. external hdd: various *big* software suites, like Adobe suites, etc.

Is there an optimum way of installing software applications for daily use but on an external hdd ?
I'm hoping to accomplish bullet 5, to hold other, big software suite

I'm too low in hdd space, both root drive and remaining partitions, and installing my 1T gig (to replace this 160gig is too scary for me to tacle (swaping hdds, copying xp home partition or system files, risky re activation nonsense, and so on an so forth, just to scary for me to bother) so I jumped ship, I bailed out of that idea, and instead, today, I purchased a WD 320g passport so that I could install my Adobe suite, Photoshop and Premier Elements 8 on it instead of putting it onto my already cluttered and full xp home hdd and partitions.

I was also wondering, does Adobe have a feature to send all the temp files or work files elsewhere so that I don't clutter my remaining, now 1gig space left on my root drive/partition ?

I've been doing a lot of reading and feel ready to begin and am pretty anxious to get started, but I want to wait to see if its a bad idea or that there might be some good tips and things, etc.

Thanks in advance for any suggestions.

-vhelp 5260

:P *~*!*~*!~* HaPpY HoLiDaYs *~*!*~*!~*

[redwudz]

I did similar when I used a small 60GB SSD for a boot drive. I installed all my programs, the page file and temp files, on a separate HDD. The separate drive was in the computer, but I could have installed them on a external eSATA drive and it would have been the same. It worked fine. But the loading time suffered a little and I was always fighting the programs that wanted to use the boot for a scratch drive or storage by default. Just something you have to constantly deal with.

If your external drive is USB, then you might have a few problems with disc access speed and interference with the USB bus by Windows operations. But a eSATA external should work OK and I would definitely recommend that if you want to install programs on it.

My solution after my SSD crashed was to replace the boot drive with a 160GB Raptor drive. I still use the SSD for a scratch drive.

I was a bit surprised at how easily most programs adapted to not running from the boot drive. Photoshop will let you put the scratch drive where ever you want and it should let you put the edited files where you want them. But you have to monitor most programs as they want to default to the boot drive for most operations.

The only question I didn't encounter is if the external drive is not turned on at boot. That might cause some problems. If you always power it up first, should work, though.

[edDV]

I think you would be better off getting rid of the capture partition on the 160GB, repartitioning and installing the new software there.

Your computer is limited to one internal drive?

Capture to an external eSATA drive, not the OS drive.

[vhelp]

I have captured to the 90gig partition since I got built this rig two plus years ago, all without any issue what so ever. I still capture to it, and even the root partition, when I move things around to gain a few gigs. Its all a matter of the knowledge I have of this rig and what software/tools you use to do this. Course, I wouldn't recommend it to anyone. I just know I can! Anyway. FWIW, I mostly capture to externals, and the avi's I have on the 90g is staying there

M$ killed our freedom when they threw in that "activation" crap. If this were win98 or 2000, I would have no trouble installing on a memory sticks and having (ultimate) multiple OS configurations. But most everything latest and greates require a min of XP or higher. So, I'm stuck with XP and fudging around with whatever assist I can get in my endeavors..the latest being, installing software suites on external drives.

My plan is to only turn on the unit when I need to work in Adobe Elements. I may install other software suite as/when they find their way in my workstation. The way I see it, if I don't plan on running Elements, I will simply leave the external hdd off or unplugged--this one has no off switch..may not even matter

Still, I can't see any harm in leaving off or unplugged while I boot up in XP. If I need it to work I guess I could reboot, but I don't know yet if that is even necessary. I may only have to activate the drive and double-click the icon to begin things. Well, I'll soon know, when I install and give these things a go.

-vhelp 5261

[edDV]

So you can't add a second internal drive?

Capture to an OS drive partition causes a lot of disk thrashing. Adobe is heavy on tmp files. You need to plan for this. Capture and Adobe tmp files should be on other than the OS drive. Programs are fine on the OS drive.

[vhelp]

I could, but that may prob serve as a dedicated capture drive if I were to go that route. I added a USB-2 DVD Writer, and removed an internal DVD writer from my 2nd'ary and will prob fill that whole with a dedicated capture drive..maybe the 1T 3.5" Barracuda SATA drive, I don't know yet..just want to install Adobe suite but without hassle and get right into the new hobby and educational aspects of it--I don't want to thrash around in problems first.

I also picked up an extra 1g of ram, I upgraded to 2gig, but decided I'll prob need 4gig, but the tech said that for XP it only sees 3gig and never use the 4th, so i'll fill the two slots total w/ 3gigs in hopes to lesson the hdd thrashing. So, let me get going in installing things, can't wait. I've waited long enough, nows time to get cooking!! I'll keep you all informed of my positive results, thanks again.

-vhelp 5262

[vhelp]

Com'on, this should realy be easy, childs play, right ? gosh!

I'm having trouble with the new 2g stick. The sticks are the same spec, DDR2-800, for the 1gig and the 2gig stick.

Now you see why I didn't want to go through the trouble with installing a HDD, as stated above, initially.

Ram slots are like this: 1|| . . . 2|| . . . [cpu/fan]

Installing new ram: 1st attempt

1. First, I took out only 1gig stick, slot 2, the one closest to cpu chip/fan
2. then, I installed the 2gig
3. turned power on, and all I got was a beeping and no boot up.

Installing new ram: 2nd attempt

1. took both sticks out
2. placed the 2gig stick in the slot farthest away from cpu chip/fan
3. turned power on, and vuala, booted into windows xp, showing 2gigs

Installing new ram: 3rd attempt

1. took both sticks out
2. placed 2gig in slot 1
3. placed 1gig in slot 2
4. turned power on, initial boot screen shows, hdds, ram, cpu, etc etc
5. screen goes blank, then shows this message forever:

Mediashield ROM BIOS 6.87
Copyright (c) 2006 NVIDIA Corp.

Detecting array . . .

Any ideas what's going on here ?

-vhelp 5263

[vhelp]

Ok, I've waisted enough time..I'm just gonna stay with the 2gigs and hope thats enought for Adobe Elements 8 needs..i'm forging on..

-vhelp 5266

[vhelp]

[SUCCESS] -- and RESOLVED

Well, just wanted to say, success. Using the external 320g HDD passort did the trick, I have both the Adobe Premier and Photoshop Element 8 apps installed on the passport. I can't say much about the throughput because these apps are resource hogs and load a ton of plugins during startup, every time.

The issue with the ram I will address at a later date. It would seam (a guess) that my mobo wants equal size sticks and fails, so 2gigs will have to do.

But all in all, I am very happy and busy in this new hobby. Its amazingly fun, and will chaulk this up to success..thank you.

-vhelp 5268