Installing Sims 3 and Expansions ON EXTERNAL HARDDRIVE

by Guest Mon 20 May 2013, 15:22

Hellllllooo thereeeeee.

I'm an avid Sim'mer.
I've played them since I was little and have gone through so many discs it's crazy.
I've also installed The Sims 3 from your lovely site before, all without any traumas or issues I love you

(Thanks for making it so easy! )
But, what I am new to is HOW MANY GB ALL THESE SIMS AND EXPANSIONS CONSUME! Not quite as small as ye' olde The Sims is it?! Razz

And this begs the question; how does one install these games and their expansions onto an external Hard-drive??

I'm fairly certain on how to Install it if it were from disc, but, when it comes too mounting the images and everything, I well suffice to say: Noob

Would you have any pointers on how to do this?
Keep in mind, I am technologically inept.

Sorry for being a bother.
Keep up the awesome work!

-Hemera

by **invalidusername** Mon 20 May 2013, 17:39

Basically it's the same as installing to your internal harddrive. You just need to make sure that during the installation of the base game you change the drive you want it installed to. However, there are some downfalls to this. If you ever unplug your external, you have to make sure that when it's plugged back in, it is recognized as the same drive letter. Otherwise the game won't load up at all. Also, because of the extended data transfer, the game won't run quite as smoothly, or look as nice.

by **Admin** Mon 20 May 2013, 20:05

Hello,

As for the overall progress, these are the up-to-date steps you have to follow: https://games4theworld.forumotion.com/t1171-must-read-how-to-install-the-sims-3-correctly
DO NOT skip any steps!

Also, our The Sims 3 expansion packs do not require you to mount anything, just open them as follows: open the .rar file you downloaded using only WinRAR, which can be downloaded from www.games4theworld.org . (If you use any other software than WinRAR, like WinZip or 7-Zip, the files will usually get messed up!)
After opening the .rar file using WinRAR, select all the files in it and drag & drop them to an empty folder on your Desktop. When the extraction has finished, close the .rar file and open the folder on your Desktop.
Now start by reading the included "# Installation Guide.txt", and you should be able to get the game to work yourself.

Good luck and please let us know if you need more assistance!

Ps. If you don't know how to mount, read our free Mounting Guide on www.games4theworld.org under Downloads > Guides. Have fun!

by **The_gh0stm4n** Mon 20 May 2013, 23:19

invalidusername wrote:Basically it's the same as installing to your internal harddrive. You just need to make sure that during the installation of the base game you change the drive you want it installed to. However, there are some downfalls to this. If you ever unplug your external, you have to make sure that when it's plugged back in, it is recognized as the same drive letter. Otherwise the game won't load up at all. Also, because of the extended data transfer, the game won't run quite as smoothly, or look as nice.

Absolutely correct. I would also like to add that if something actually happens to your "drive-letter" (because of unplugging, a power outage or something similar), you can change it, still. In Windows, click on start, then "Run". In the prompt, copy & paste this here: diskmgmt.msc . This should open the "disk management" utility. You should now see your drives in a list. Right click on your external drive and change the letter to its original letter (=the letter you used when installing).
Of course, you need to plug in/switch on your external drive while doing that.

Another thing: your "The Sims 3" folder containing save files, custom content and mods will still be in your main hard-disk, so usually that's the "C:" drive in Windows (I'm not sure if there is a way to actually have it on your external). This means you have to make sure to have enough space on C. For save files I recommed between 1.5 and 2 GB. If you want to install lots of custom content, you should again add several GB. Moreover, it's recommended that you also have a few GB of "extra space", otherwise there may be problems with the main drive Wink

. As a rough figure, I would say you need a total of around 8-10 GB of free space.

Also this problem with the "letter changing" happens in Windows operating systems. I'm not sure how Mac computers treat that problem or even if there is something similar.

by Guest Tue 21 May 2013, 01:03

Thank-you for explaining everything!
I'm glad it was so easy to understand as well.
I still have one question though. Doesn't the Base game of The Sims 3 require to be mounted? Or am I reading the wrong thing.

Here this is what it says:

***TORRENT BY: Games4theworld***

The Sims 3 - Installation Guide
1. Mount* or Burn the 'The_Sims_3_StartDisk.ISO'.
2. Do the same with the 'The_Sims_3_Disk_1.ISO'
3. Now start the StartDisk you just Mounted. (NOTE: In 'My Computer' or 'Computer' this .ISO is
called 'SIMS3')
4. Start the Installation and folow on screen instruction[/quote]s.

This is the one bit that has really confused me now in relation to putting it onto Hard drive.
Unless, Maybe I can just install that Base game to my PC, yet the expansion to the Hard drive?
Would this still work?
Sorry, Thanks.

by **invalidusername** Tue 21 May 2013, 07:37

The base game does, but that's the only one. The rest of them are installed using an executable (.exe) file.

by **The_gh0stm4n** Tue 21 May 2013, 17:26

Hemera wrote:
This is the one bit that has really confused me now in relation to putting it onto Hard drive.
Unless, Maybe I can just install that Base game to my PC, yet the expansion to the Hard drive?
Would this still work?
Sorry, Thanks.

Theoretically, it shouldn't matter which parts of the game you install in certain hard-drives. Again, pay attention about what invalidusername said above about "drive-letter change", and my post about "free space in the main hard-drive" too.

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