USB hard drive... is it ok to run your gaming and frontend off it?

[nickynooch]

 

[ahofle]

It works just fine.

[garnerb350]

+1

No problem at all... I have all my stuff located on my TB drive and I did a backup and ran Hyperspin from the TB...works fine...

[nickynooch]

Awesome!

[WhereEaglesDare]

what happens if you change it to another pc and your external HDDs designator is different than the one you used to program it?

[bkenobi]

what happens if you change it to another pc and your external HDDs designator is different than the one you used to program it?

Depends on the FE, but some won't work.  GameEx, for instance, has registry entries that the author has indicated won't allow you to switch (easily anyway) to a different PC.  It's not a copy protection thing, it's basically due to how Windows works.  If the FE doesn't have registry entries, I'm sure it would work great!

[WhereEaglesDare]

but lets say that your drive is drive E on one PC and drive G on another... what then?

[garnerb350]

but lets say that your drive is drive E on one PC and drive G on another... what then?

I know where Eagles getting at... (i think)

My TB was listed as Drive D for a while and then when i switched PCs...it was then H... I had to go in and redirect my locations of everything as per my emulators and frontend...(mame snaps,ctrlr,artwork etc) Pain in the arse...Happened everytime I switched to different PCs...but then I found out (did a search) and there is a feature where you can assign drive letters to different drives...via control panel through Windows... I assigned the TBdrive from H back to D.... and it runs ok...as long as locations are correctly listed...

[severdhed]

if your drive letter changes, right click on my computer,click manage.  choose Disk management.  find your external drive, right click and choose change drive letter

[Havok]

if your drive letter changes, right click on my computer,click manage.  choose Disk management.  find your external drive, right click and choose change drive letter

That's it - of course you may need to shuffle disk drive letters around to get what you want, which can break other software.

AtomicFE uses relative paths, so would be unaffected by a drive letter change...

[garnerb350]

+1 severdhed

That was what i was mentioning (couldnt remember exactly)

Now on my setup, I had C: (40gig) D:&E: (CD/DVD drives) F:(TB drive) G&H:( USB drives)

Now on my TB, I have my emulators, frontend, jukebox mp3 etc, and other various files...

Currently (because I am lazy) i have a copy of my front end that i use primary on the C Drive that i havent taken off... As long as my locations are correct, it runs fine... Incase the pc by some reason dies...all i have to do is switch the TB to another PC and like said before make sure the locations are correct...   

[Vigo]

I would think the easiest setup would be up all software, emulators, FE's on the dedicated C drive.

All roms, chds, music, snaps, and other large files can go on a USB TB drive. The C drive should be less than a few gb and would be much easier to backup.

Granted, that would be a setup if using a USB TB drive was planned from day 1.