New External HD question

Finally - I purchased a Western Digital Passport Portable 80G HD for my laptop.

Question: Can I install PSElements 3 and other software like my PDA on the external hd without installing any components on the laptop? Up to now, I've only used my pc external hd for file backup and photos.

I got the hd on sale at Costco for $103 with a coupon. There was only one store in nothern and central NJ that had any stock as they were sold as quickly as they got the shipment.

Thanks for your patience. As you can see, I'm not experienced much in the field of computer technology.

Liz

From my understanding, I'm not an expert, you should be able too. The computer will see it as a drive and give it and letter and when you add a program, such as PhotoShop, just put it to that letter instead of your "C:". Hope this helps you out...

Yes you can Liz, as long as you use the drive on same computer you hook it up to when you do the installation. From memory I believe there are still files that are placed in the windows directory that need to be there for the program to run. Remember I did say from memory.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Liz

Finally - I purchased a Western Digital Passport Portable 80G HD for my laptop.

Question: Can I install PSElements 3 and other software like my PDA on the external hd without installing any components on the laptop? Up to now, I've only used my pc external hd for file backup and photos.

---

Unluckily the short answer is NO. If you are runing a DOS 6.1 program the answer would be YES. Windows NT, XP, and the lastest Windows OSs have to registor the DLL's and enter keys in the registory, these items and registories are all on your boot drive. Most windows programs expect to find their DLL's in one of the Windows directory, and if they don't find them you will get error messages or the program just may crush and burn.

If you wish to boot from the external HD you can (this depends on the external drive and the laptops BIOS).

GRF

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by freygr

Unluckily the short answer is NO. If you are runing a DOS 6.1 program the answer would be YES. Windows NT, XP, and the lastest Windows OSs have to registor the DLL's and enter keys in the registory, these items and registories are all on your boot drive. Most windows programs expect to find their DLL's in one of the Windows directory, and if they don't find them you will get error messages or the program just may crush and burn.

If you wish to boot from the external HD you can (this depends on the external drive and the laptops BIOS).

GRF

---

This makes sense. I have WinXP. That means I have to install PSElements on both my PC and laptop if I want to work on both these computers.

Thank you! I didn't think of the registry part. Makes a lot of sense. That's okay - good info. I appreciate this.

Liz

Depends on why you want the install files on the external drive. If you just want to save space on your laptop, yes. But the drive needs to be attached when you're running the application. Windows also places required .dll's and reg files in the windows directory despite having the main install on a removable drive.
If you plan on using the drive on another PC, then your apps aren't going to run unless you did an identical install on that PC to the same drive.
Hope that answers your question.
IF space on your laptop is short, installing a larger drive on your laptop isn't all that hard to do these days, and it might just be cheaper than getting an external drive. The only thing to watch is whether your current drive is a 3.3 volt or 5 volt drive (most laptop drives are 5 volt). Just a suggestion-I've never had a laptop that I didn't upgrade with more RAM and a larger hard drive.:D

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Liz

I have WinXP. That means I have to install PSElements on both my PC and laptop if I want to work on both these computers...

---

It's really not that big a pain, Liz. I have many programs installed on both my PC and my notebook. Takes a bit of time, but these program folders don't take up much hard drive space...

Thanks! I was thinking more of installing it on the external h.d. and just take the h.d. with me when I'm traveling with my laptop. Since I already bought the h.d. I'll just install the software on both the pc & laptop.

Thanks for all the info - and I might end up putting more ram on the laptop - I'll see how I do with the external h.d.

Liz

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Lionheart

Depends on why you want the install files on the external drive. If you just want to save space on your laptop, yes. But the drive needs to be attached when you're running the application. Windows also places required .dll's and reg files in the windows directory despite having the main install on a removable drive.
If you plan on using the drive on another PC, then your apps aren't going to run unless you did an identical install on that PC to the same drive.
Hope that answers your question.
IF space on your laptop is short, installing a larger drive on your laptop isn't all that hard to do these days, and it might just be cheaper than getting an external drive. The only thing to watch is whether your current drive is a 3.3 volt or 5 volt drive (most laptop drives are 5 volt). Just a suggestion-I've never had a laptop that I didn't upgrade with more RAM and a larger hard drive.:D

---

Yes, this is what I'll do - it will work the best. I can store the photos, etc. on the external h.d. with the software for Elements on both computers.

Thanks Steve.

Liz

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Asylum Steve

It's really not that big a pain, Liz. I have many programs installed on both my PC and my notebook. Takes a bit of time, but these program folders don't take up much hard drive space...

---

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Liz

Yes, this is what I'll do - it will work the best. I can store the photos, etc. on the external h.d. with the software for Elements on both computers. Thanks Steve.Liz

---

...if you simply store data on your external HD, you can switch it from computer to computer, so for example you can upload photos from your camera to the notebook/ext hd in the field, then switch the hd to your desktop and download the images to your pc, and good stuff like that...

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Asylum Steve

...if you simply store data on your external HD, you can switch it from computer to computer, so for example you can upload photos from your camera to the notebook/ext hd in the field, then switch the hd to your desktop and download the images to your pc, and good stuff like that...

---

Thanks! Yep - that's the plan! ;)

Liz

More RAM makes programs run faster.
External HD is best for data storage long term.

The exception is programs that use disk space as paging space, or working space, outside the normal Windows virtual memory management. For photoshop it can make a difference - but not as good as more real memory.


Putting programs on the external HD isn't really going to get you too far.
Installing them twice, once on the internal HD and once external isn't usually possible.
Particularly for programs that have activation keys written to the disk. They will almost always be written to your C: drive and you probably have no control over that

You also often can't install them successfully more than once, even in the same external drive folder, on more than one PC to have the programs on the external drive usable on more than one computer. For example the external drive would probably have to be D:\ or E:\ on every computer you connect it to for that to work.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by SmartWombat

More RAM makes programs run faster.
External HD is best for data storage long term.
Clip.......

---

By all means install a minimum of 512 meg of ram, now days some games need 1Gig to run smoothly. I remember when I had to pay $20 for a 1x65K ram chip (8 were required).

Paul,

In relation to what you said here, let me ask you another question. Can I install Elements 3 on both my home pc and my laptop - then use the ext hd just to store the images? Will the software install on both computers (not the external hd)? This would allow me to store the images on the external hd, work on the images on both computers & save the changes on the hd.

Thanks

Liz

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by SmartWombat

More RAM makes programs run faster.
External HD is best for data storage long term.

The exception is programs that use disk space as paging space, or working space, outside the normal Windows virtual memory management. For photoshop it can make a difference - but not as good as more real memory.


Putting programs on the external HD isn't really going to get you too far.
Installing them twice, once on the internal HD and once external isn't usually possible.
Particularly for programs that have activation keys written to the disk. They will almost always be written to your C: drive and you probably have no control over that

You also often can't install them successfully more than once, even in the same external drive folder, on more than one PC to have the programs on the external drive usable on more than one computer. For example the external drive would probably have to be D:\ or E:\ on every computer you connect it to for that to work.

---

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Liz

Paul,

In relation to what you said here, let me ask you another question. Can I install Elements 3 on both my home pc and my laptop - then use the ext hd just to store the images? Will the software install on both computers (not the external hd)? This would allow me to store the images on the external hd, work on the images on both computers & save the changes on the hd.

Thanks

Liz

---

The Answer is YES. Infact I have my Harddrive Partitioned into two drives, C: programs, D: data. That way if my OS goes south, I can just format C: and reinstall all the programs and my photos and data are not touched. Beside if I delete anything it's not a problem to recover it as I can save it the over partition.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Liz

Can I install Elements 3 on both my home pc and my laptop - then use the ext hd just to store the images?

---

Yes. I've done that with PSE 3 and 4 without problems.

Okay! That sounds like a great idea. Not to appear too dumb :eek: but how would I partition the hd into 2 C&D. Thanks

BTW, I really appreciate your help - all of you. I'm learning so much here and it will save me a lot of time now and in the future too.

Liz

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by freygr

The Answer is YES. Infact I have my Harddrive Partitioned into two drives, C: programs, D: data. That way if my OS goes south, I can just format C: and reinstall all the programs and my photos and data are not touched. Beside if I delete anything it's not a problem to recover it as I can save it the over partition.

---

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Liz

Okay! That sounds like a great idea. Not to appear too dumb :eek: but how would I partition the hd into 2 C&D. Thanks

BTW, I really appreciate your help - all of you. I'm learning so much here and it will save me a lot of time now and in the future too.

Liz

---

There a couple programs what will resize the partition so you can have two partitions after the fact. The only program I can think of is "Partition Magic". The other way is just to add another harddrive.

The other way is to do a full backup. Next find a DOS6.X, Win95-ME boot floppy disk. Boot form the disk, at the command prompt, enter FDISK. Answer YES to large disk support. Delete the current Partition. Exit and Reboot the compute without removing the Boot Floppy.

Rebooting makes sure all the Partition the new partition information is updated in the OS.

Restart Fdisk at the command prompt. Select Create Primary Patition. I currently have a 200 GIG drive, I partitioned 30 gig for my OS (boot partition) and the rest for data. I'm running Windows XP at home and work. My work machine only has a 20 GIG drive, and it only is 50% full, with a FULL install of Office Pro, WordPerfect Office, Photoshop, PCB & Schismatic, AutoCad, and much more. My home computer has all that plus the World of War Craft, and other games and I still have 15gig of free space. So make sure you do not make your OS drive too small.

After creating your primary partition create your next partition (Extended partition) and select use all available space.

Remove your boot floppy, put in your bootable windows install CD. Install windows (make sure to format all the partitions during windows install), and all your software. I've done this more than once, and it takes me atleat a week to get all may programs installed.

Thanks again......for all the information. And for taking the time to type it all out and post it. Wow! that's is a page full. I'll read it again and decide if I can attempt it - being the "computer for dummies" person that I still am. :eek:

Liz

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by freygr

There a couple programs what will resize the partition so you can have two partitions after the fact. The only program I can think of is "Partition Magic". The other way is just to add another harddrive.

The other way is to do a full backup. Next find a DOS6.X, Win95-ME boot floppy disk. Boot form the disk, at the command prompt, enter FDISK. Answer YES to large disk support. Delete the current Partition. Exit and Reboot the compute without removing the Boot Floppy.

Rebooting makes sure all the Partition the new partition information is updated in the OS.

Restart Fdisk at the command prompt. Select Create Primary Patition. I currently have a 200 GIG drive, I partitioned 30 gig for my OS (boot partition) and the rest for data. I'm running Windows XP at home and work. My work machine only has a 20 GIG drive, and it only is 50% full, with a FULL install of Office Pro, WordPerfect Office, Photoshop, PCB & Schismatic, AutoCad, and much more. My home computer has all that plus the World of War Craft, and other games and I still have 15gig of free space. So make sure you do not make your OS drive too small.

After creating your primary partition create your next partition (Extended partition) and select use all available space.

Remove your boot floppy, put in your bootable windows install CD. Install windows (make sure to format all the partitions during windows install), and all your software. I've done this more than once, and it takes me atleat a week to get all may programs installed.

---