I want to dedicate an external hard drive for use with Photoshop/CS since my internal hard drive is becoming filled. Can I transfer the program and files over to an external hard drive or do I have to load the program into the external hard drive and then transfer the files. What about the plug insssssss.

Why not just use the external hard drive for storage? Keep the program on the c: drive and save all your work on the new external drive?

-cedwar

martyphoto,

welcome to RetouchPRO!

the short answer is no, you cant just move them over to the external drive. or at least, not if you're running any windows since win98. all of the registry entries are tied to the location where the program currently resides.

also, you wouldnt like the speed having the program on an external drive. externals are slower by quite a bit.

so, basically, if you just really have to have it on the external, you can uninstall your current version and install it on the external. you might even be able to get copies working on both the external and internal, but if you're space saving then i doubt you'd want that.

now, i gave you the short answer as no. however, there used to be a program that came with 'Partition Magic' that would not only copy your program files to a new location, but it would also change the necessary registry entries from the old to the new. the program was called 'Magic Mover'. i dont know if the current versions of partition magic still come with this extra or not.

typically, externals are used for not often used data files, storage, backups and that sort of thing because of their slower speeds. they typically run through usb or firewire and both are quite a bit slower than a native ide port transfer. buy hey, i'm not telling you you cant do it :)

Craig

Hi martyphoto,

what Kraellin wrote is bang on!

What cedwar mentions is exactly what I've been doing for a while now. I currently use a USB external Hard Drive. It's a 250 GB unit made by LaCie. It allows me to store a lot of my completed jobs while keeping them readily available (I still keep back-up copies burnt on CD/DVD's but it's a hassle to fetch the disks, etc.). One thing worth noting is that the speed issues with the external Hard Drives are rapidly going the way of the Dodo bird. There are units availlable that use FireWire 800 and even SATA (the later gives you a transfer rate of up to 1.5 Gigabits per second).

I would therefore also recommend that you keep the software installed on the PC's internal HDD and use an external HDD for storage.

Frank