Can I download games onto my harddrive (E:)

[Emkins]

Hi guys, I'm looking for some advice. I received my new HP Phoenix h9 1040 computer yesterday, 99.6gb os C:) drive, and a 2tb datedrive1 E:) drive. I'm just wondering as I mostly play games on the desktop, will I be able to download any games onto the E:) drive and how? As I tried installing a game last night on the E:) drive, then an expansion pack for the game, it came up with a message saying may cause the hard drive to become unstable. Obviously I did something wrong, and would like more information on how.. if I can download games to my E:) drive as I hardly have any room on my C:) drive left.

Thankyou.

[Hanspuppa]

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Emkins wrote: Hi guys, I'm looking for some advice. I received my new HP Phoenix h9 1040 computer yesterday, 99.6gb os C: drive, and a 2tb datedrive1 E: drive. I'm just wondering as I mostly play games on the desktop, will I be able to download any games onto the E: drive and how? As I tried installing a game last night on the E: drive, then an expansion pack for the game, it came up with a message saying may cause the hard drive to become unstable. Obviously I did something wrong, and would like more information on how.. if I can download games to my E: drive as I hardly have any room on my C: drive left. Thankyou.

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Hello Emkins, It seems the HP system model you have may have been shipped with a 120 GB SSD (Solid State Drive), and when partitioned and formated would result in the capacity you list. This SSD drive would be where the operating system would be installed, and the E: drive is a 2 GB secondary drive, that would be used for any Data that would be installed on the system.

Here  is the link for the specifications for the system. This hard drive configuration is something new that HP and other OEMs have started recently.

You should install all the added applications on the E: drive. Since most applications want to install on the C: drive by default, you would need to change the location to the E: drive for the installation.

Any application desktop icon shortcuts should have the path to the executable file for any application on the E: drive. If you manually create a desktop shortcut icon, you would need to navigate to the application executable file on the E: drive.

Hope this is not too confusing.

[Emkins]

Hello, thankyou, I understand some of the information that you are saying, and some of it confusing hehe!! Yes, you are correct with the system specifications. Ok, I understand that you have to change the default when downloading a game to the E drive, the only thing that confuses me is when I click on the E drive, theres no folders for me to place the games in such as you have your folders on the C drive. Its all very confusing to me but hopefully I will get there in the end, if theres any other information on how to do this would be helpful, but much thanks for the information that you have given to me already.

Thankyou. 

[Hanspuppa · Accepted solution]

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Emkins wrote: Hello, thankyou, I understand some of the information that you are saying, and some of it confusing hehe!! Yes, you are correct with the system specifications. Ok, I understand that you have to change the default when downloading a game to the E drive, the only thing that confuses me is when I click on the E drive, theres no folders for me to place the games in such as you have your folders on the C drive. Its all very confusing to me but hopefully I will get there in the end, if theres any other information on how to do this would be helpful, but much thanks for the information that you have given to me already. Thankyou. 

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Hello Emkins, There most likely would not be any Folder on the E: drive if you have not installed any applications on this drive. You may see a System Folder, that would be by default, that you could not or should not try to access it..

You could go to the E: drive and create a Program Files folder, just as it is on the C: drive, and install the new applications to this folder. All the applications that are x64 bit should be installed in that folder. If you have some applications that are x86 (32 bit) you should create a folder on the E: drive as Program Files (x86) and install all the x86 (32 bit) applications in that folder. This is how these programs are installed by default on the C: drive. If you do not create the Program Files folder and the Program Files (x86) folder, any application that you install on the E: drive would create a Folder in it's own name. Making the Program Files folders and making the path for the installation to these folders would insure they all get installed in these folders, and you would not have the application folders showing on the E: Directory tree.

If you have already installed some games or other applications on the C: drive, you may want to uninstall these from the C: drive and reinstall them on the E: drive, in the Program Files folder or Program Files (x86) folder that you manually created on the E: drive. This would free up some capacity on the C: SSD drive.

If you have one game that you play more than others, you might be able to leave it on the C: SSD drive. This should give you better performance than if it were installed on the E: drive, since the E: drive is a platter drive. 

[Emkins]

Hello Hanspuppa,

Thankyou very much for going through the information with me, you have been a great help. I will try it tomorrow, and if I get stuck on anything, which hopefully I won't, I will return.

Thanks again.:smileyhappy:

[Emkins]

Hi Hanspuppa,

Just a quick question as I've made the folders for the E:) drive. How do you know which applications to put into the Program Files, such as you said Program files for 64 bit, and Program Files x86 for 32 bit. How do you know what sort of application it is, such as 64 bit or 32 bit. Hope I'm not confusing you too much haha!!

Thanks.

[Hanspuppa]

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Emkins wrote: Hi Hanspuppa, Just a quick question as I've made the folders for the E:) drive. How do you know which applications to put into the Program Files, such as you said Program files for 64 bit, and Program Files x86 for 32 bit. How do you know what sort of application it is, such as 64 bit or 32 bit. Hope I'm not confusing you too much haha!! Thanks.

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Hello Emkins, If you are unsure about the version of your software, look at the installation disk if you have one and they usually advise the version. If you cannot locate the information about which version it is, you might just install them in the Programs Files (x86) Folder.

If this is wrong these programs may not open properly, but I highly doubt it. I really do not think it makes that much difference, but Microsoft suggest running 32 bit applications as opposed to x64, since most of today's program installer code are still coded in 32 bit.

There is really no difference between \Program Files and \Program Files (x86) other than to support old poorly-written installer files, when everything was either 16-bit or 32-bit. This is simply an implementation approach to differentiate 32-bit from 64-bit, but programs of either flavor placed in either directory will still run just fine.

You can create a destop icon, by locating the executable file for the program, and right clicking on the file name and select to Send To The Desktop. This will create a desktop icon that has the path to where ever the file is located, whether on the E: Program Files or the E: Program Files (x86).

[Emkins]

Thankyou very much, all done and dusted now.:smileyhappy:

Thanks again.