Download Origin on External Hard Drive

[makerunurself]

Hi y'all,

I have read multiple forums and tried multiple pathways and nothing seems to be working, though it could easily be user error. I am attempting to play the Sims 4 from my external hard drive and nothing I have done has worked.

First, I changed the Cloud Storage Game Library location to match the folder created for the game and when I launched the game it started brand new even though my old saves and mods were in that save location. I then read about moving the game by going through My Game Library and right-clicking on the Sims 4 and did that,  so I tried that and the same thing happened - the game loaded brand new. Lastly, I read about uninstalling Origin and reinstalling it to the same location as where the game is saved, but when I reinstalled Origin, it did not give me an option on where to store the install. I tried to manually move Origin to the hard drive, since the Modify option was inaccessible under Add/Remove Programs, but there was an error notice that blocked me.

As you can tell, I am a little frustrated these solutions aren't working. I would love to hear your suggestions and give it another go. Thank you!

[puzzlezaddict]

@makerunurself  I've moved your post to the Sims 4 PC tech section.

Please clarify exactly what you've moved to the external drive so far, and how; and what you'd like stored on your external drive: the game's program files, or its user data folder.  It would also be helpful to see the error Origin threw, and to know what you were trying to do when you saw it.

Origin cloud saving doesn't work for Sims 4, so it's not part of the solution here.

[makerunurself]

@puzzlezaddict Thank you for your swift response. All I really want is to be able to operate the game and have the saves, mods, etc.saved on the external hard drive, but that hasn't been possible yet which is why I also tried to reinstall Origin on the external. However I am able to do that works for me. So far I have manually transferred the folder Electronic Arts which contains the folder The Sims 4 and that has a lot of subfolders in it. I apologize, I don't know the language well enough to tell you exactly what it is called. I also moved the game within Origin to this external hard drive Electronic Arts folder, but when I open the game it starts brand new again and creates a new Electronic Arts folder in the C drive Documents with the new save in there. I hope that made sense/clarified some things. I was unable to recover the error code, but I'll post again if it comes up. Thank you for your help!

[roberta591]

@makerunurself   This game is hard coded to put this games user data on the system drive (C) as are most other games. There is a way to have the operating system look for this data in another place. This is an advanced command called symbolic link. There are pros and cons to using symbolic link. I don't advise using this unless you really know what you are doing. As I'm guessing you want to move this data to an external storage device (probably usb) you need to know that a under certain conditions a usb can (and sometimes does) change the device designation and that places the data to another location where it won't be in the expected location. If you are contemplating this now I recommend you get a larger system device NOW before the system gets more complicated then it is because my guess is things will not get better. Windows is known to be sloppy and leave data that will probably never get user again. Getting a 1Tb device means you probably won't have to worry about free space. I just bought a WD blue 1Tb 7200rpm drive for $43 usd

[puzzlezaddict]

@makerunurself  Just so you know, the game will likely run more slowly on an external drive than it would on an internal drive.  This depends in part on the connection speed of your external, and in part on what type of drive it is, but you will be sacrificing some performance.  If you're okay with that, it's certainly doable.

There are two separate sets of data: the game's program files (the game itself that gets installed from Origin), and your user data (your saves, mods, custom content, etc.).  Sims 4 will always look for its user data folder in Documents\Electronic Arts, and if no folder is there, it will create another one.

Installing the program files on your external drive isn't complicated, and maybe you've already done this.  It's best to keep Origin itself on the internal drive though, and not usually a problem since it takes up so little space.  If you have actually moved any Origin files, please uninstall Origin completely and reinstall it from scratch on your internal drive.  That means deleting anything you've moved to the external drive, then uninstalling Origin "the hard way" and reinstalling.

https://help.ea.com/en-us/help/origin/origin/manually-uninstalling-origin/

If you never actually moved Origin or any of its files (not the game, just Origin), you can skip this step.  But if you're not sure whether all its files are intact, it's better to uninstall and reinstall from scratch.

For the Sims 4 program files, you can change the location when you install, or you can (usually) tell Origin to move the files itself.  Be sure to make a folder on the external drive into which the game will go (don't name it Sims 4 or Electronic Arts), as it's usually not possible, and definitely not a good idea, to install the game directly onto the drive without using a folder.  If the game is still on your internal drive and you want to move it without reinstalling, open your Origin game library, right-click on the Sims 4 icon, and select Move Game, then pick the folder you've made on the external drive.  If you need help with this step, just let me know whether the game is still installed and whether you've tried to move any files around.

For the user data folder, you can create a symbolic link to redirect from your internal Documents folder to the external hard drive.  It's fairly straightforward in Windows, although you need to be confident you can follow the instructions to the letter.  Since you're only moving your user data, not the entirety of Documents, there's not much risk other than the possibility of losing your saves.  Be sure to create a backup of the folder elsewhere before you start, and you'll be fine.

https://crinrict.com/blog/2020/02/moving-windows-documents-folder-to-external-drive-via-symbolic-lin...

Again, if any of this is confusing, feel free to ask for help.  But please describe the step you're trying to complete, and where the files are currently located.

[oodaryoo]

bro best buy has a 8 tb wd game drive for 200