Installing Sims 3 on external hard drive

[kelseyvail]

I have purchased all but 3 EPs/SPs on origin and my laptop does not have room for all of them anymore, so I have a larger external hard drive I'm hoping to put all of my sims installs on. Can anyone help? When I try to install from origin, it just installs directly to the c: drive, and won't ask me where I want to put the files. Any help?

[Sussski]

Hi! 

First, sorry about my English skills, it's not my native language.

Anyway, try to uninstall all your Sims 3 games and also Origin. Then download or reinstall Origin, and when it asks where you want to install the software, select your external hard drive and install it there. This way all your Sims 3 games will be downloaded to your new HDD. 

I hope this will help you!  

[aw217]

I have tried that but it always gives me an error message ("The game installation directory is invalid. Please select a different directory.")

[NeeG11]

Me too!

[mystarblue12]

On your external drive, placea copy of the origin and origin games folders. Then, in the origin settings, under installs and saves, change the download destination to the origin games folder copy you made on your external disk drive.

[KeenanTheySay]

Perfect explanation 

[artisticnightowl]

Does that me download Origin again on the external or I have to find all the application folders saved on my hard drive or just copy the app itself? Sorry I'm new to doing this?

[puzzlezaddict]

@artisticnightowl  The current way to install Sims 3 on an external is this:  Download the EA App, let it install on your internal drive (it doesn't want to go anywhere else), create a folder on the external drive where you'll install the game, and name it something that isn't "The Sims 3."  For example, Games is fine, or EA Games, or Sims.  Tell the EA App to download Sims 3, and you'll be asked where you want to install.  Choose the folder on your external.

If you want to move your game data—saves, saved households and builds, mods, etc.—to the external, that requires a symbolic link and a separate conversation.  But it's also not recommended for Sims 3, as it will increase loading times by a substantial amount, particularly with well-progressed saves.

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Since this thread is quite old, I'll lock it here.