Helping people with computers... one answer at a time.
An external drive is just another drive to Windows. Setting up programs on a drive that can be removed, however, warrants some care.
Windows XP-Home is installed on my C drive. Will programs, games and so on run if installed on my external E: drive or do they have to be on the same drive as Windows?
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The short answer is yes, but there are, as always a few caveats and clarifications I need to make.
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If when you set it up a program allows you to choose a destination drive to install onto, it shouldn't matter if that drive is C:, your Windows drive, or some other hard drive internal or external. For the most part they're all just drives, and the fact that the setup program gives you the option means there shouldn't be an issue.
For the record, if the setup program doesn't give you a choice then it may be an issue and I'd avoid trying to circumvent it.
Now, many external drives are removable. USB drives, for example, can be removed from your computer either while it's not running, or after clicking a "safely remove hardware" for the device. In the later case, if a program on your removable drive is running, "safely remove" may fail. All files on the external drive must not be in use, and a program running from the drive is definitely "in use". You'll need to make sure that all programs installed on the external drive are shut down before attempting to remove the drive.
Now, that sounds simple enough but more complex packages often install software that runs automatically when you start your machine, either in the form of explicit start-up menu items, or as system services. You may not think you're running any software that's installed on that external drive, but in reality it may have installed something that is. You'll need to figure out what that is, and take steps to disable it, or shut it down before you remove the drive.
Along those same lines, if the drive is not installed when you boot your system, you may get error messages on start up if a prior installation of software onto that drive also added startup items. Without the drive installed, those startup items may not be found, and errors may result. Menu items and shortcuts relating to the software installed on the external drive may also revert to Windows defaults until some time after the drive is reinstalled.
Finally, don't expect application portability by installing it to an external drive. By that I mean that installing an application to an external drive, and then taking that drive to a different computer and expecting the application to work on that machine. This may work for simpler applications, but setting up a complex application is as much about setting up the Windows registry as it is about just placing files. The registry will have only been set up on the first machine. Theoretically it might be possible to set up the software on machine A, then set it up again on machine B if the drive letters are identical, but I'd expect that to be highly error prone. It's also quite possibly against many applications licenses or terms of use since you're technically installing it on two machines.
So there are a number of issues related to removable media, but if you're just installing your software to a second hard drive, and it just happens to be an external drive, I wouldn't expect that scenario to be an issue for you.
Article C2961 - March 13, 2007 « »
Leo A. Notenboom has been playing with computers since he
was required to take a programming class in 1976. An 18 year career as a programmer at Microsoft soon followed.
After "retiring" in 2001, Leo started Ask Leo! in 2003 as a place for answers
to common computer and technical questions. More about Leo.
September 13, 2011 3:07 PM
Thanks Andrew, that is the exact game i want to put on my external and you guys have definitely helped me.
February 21, 2012 8:53 PM
all of my program files are installed on alternate drives. just in case my windows wants to crap on itself. which it did after 3 years and 2million files (literally) later. Upon angering myself, I tried something odd, I did a tiny lil fresh install on a junk HDD, and added my other windows library's, directory's to it, and BAM! everything worked again. I BS you not. RAGE3D, Crysis1,warhead,and 2. Rfactor, Abelton live,, Reason, AVA. All of the programs that I was dreading to re install worked. Some random programs would say cant find yadda file, but if that was the case, just use the original .exe on that drive to launch it. *just make a short cut to it and move it to where you like. :D
June 24, 2012 1:48 PM
Do you think I dare chance it? I want to put my e mail programme on my external HD for the very reasons that LaTrice said. My awful HP desktop after 4 or 5 new motherboards and the HD finally was even corrupted and I lost all my years of EVERYTHING! I love Incredimail (I know many people don't) anyway. I really want to try to put it on my external drive, note it does NOT give you the choice of what drive you want to install it on. And it puts it's files for folders places I can not find anymore. That would be the main thing the folders files that take up so much of my HD space. But the whole programme needs to be on my external drive. Do you recommend putting all my WINDOWS files from C:/WINDOWS onto the external drive? Is that what it needs? Now does that mean COPYing them or transferring them? I don't think my C:/ drive will operate without having them on it will it? So who ever posted they put the WINDOWS directory on their ext. HD and all the programs worked was not totally clear. I DO want to give it a try. I have my emails all over 4 different programmes and can't find a thing. Thank you very much for your time in considering this request. Antoinette
June 24, 2012 3:36 PM
@Antionette
That sounds very scary! External drives can also break, so even if you go to all the trouble to do that... you are still risking everything. Seems like you'd do better to try to find the source of the computer problems (poor ventilation, dust, dirt, electric surges?), and also do regular backups. No matter which drive goes out you won't lose everything if you do not have it in one place.
You should start by watching Leo's backup webinars. That will give you a good foundation in backups, and an idea of how to move forward:
Backup Webinar
April 20, 2013 9:15 AM
Antoinette,
did you try installing and running Incredimail on an external hard drive?
I save my Incredimail data (mails etc.) to ext hard drive, but since I travel alot, I would like to have the Incredimail program itself on the ext hard drive too - to have exactly the same view on my PC and laptop.
Is there someone out there who has tried?