playing games on external hard drive

kmansp · Mar 7, 2006, 04:10 AM

I recently had to get a new external hard drive for my laptop because the old one doesn't work any more. It was an 80 GB ION drive. I decided to get an external hard drive that didn't require an external power source, so I got an 80 GB western Digital Drive. It works fine with playing video clips and game movies, but for some reason on certain games, I get a slight skip or delay. The mouse will even stutter. It is VERY annoying, and have tried everything from turning indexing off on the drive to disable the quick remove feature of the drive. It is an 5400 RPM, the same speed as my ION drive. The ION drive never skipped. At first I thought maybe it had something to do with the external power supply, but then this new drive also has the option of plugging an AC adapter to it, which I did. Games still skipped. I have Splinter Cell Chaos Theory on the drive, and it works fine with no skipping. Yet Command and Conquer- Generals skips real bad, and Sacred does it too.

What could this be?? How can I fix this?? Any ideas would be appreciated.

calidan · Mar 7, 2006, 04:37 AM

Are you using USB or Firewire? If it's USB, you should make sure that the drive is USB 2.0 and that your USB ports are USB 2.0. USB 2.0 has speeds up to 480Mbps. Personnelly I would of got a drive that is 7200 RPMs and had an external power supply.

kmansp · Mar 11, 2006, 03:24 PM

Well the thing of it was, my old ion drive was 5400 rps as well as this western drive external drive. I had no problems on that drive with skipping around. Then I thought maybe it was like you mentioned, that it needed it's own power supply. The ion drive had to be plugged in to even work, but the western digital drive doesn't, even though it has an optional AC power cord. So I plugged it in and let it run on it's own power, but it didn't matter. It still was skipping on certain games.

What doesn't make sense is Doom 3, Quake4, and Splinter cell: chaos t heory run smoothly from it. But Far cry will skip on it, as well as an older game such as age of mythology or baldur's gate 2. Also, all of the USB ports are 2.0.

Nacht · Mar 11, 2006, 04:22 PM

external drives are meant for storage, not really for installing more games/software. internal drives are going to be much faster for those types of things.

the problem is probably the enclosure itself. the box has to convert the IDE signal to USB, and doing so in a rapid manner such as is needed in a video game would be problematic.

Mar 7, 2006, 04:10 AM	#1
kmansp DriverHeaven Junior Member Join Date: Mar 2003 Location: colorado springs Posts: 23 Rep Power: 0	playing games on external hard drive I recently had to get a new external hard drive for my laptop because the old one doesn't work any more. It was an 80 GB ION drive. I decided to get an external hard drive that didn't require an external power source, so I got an 80 GB western Digital Drive. It works fine with playing video clips and game movies, but for some reason on certain games, I get a slight skip or delay. The mouse will even stutter. It is VERY annoying, and have tried everything from turning indexing off on the drive to disable the quick remove feature of the drive. It is an 5400 RPM, the same speed as my ION drive. The ION drive never skipped. At first I thought maybe it had something to do with the external power supply, but then this new drive also has the option of plugging an AC adapter to it, which I did. Games still skipped. I have Splinter Cell Chaos Theory on the drive, and it works fine with no skipping. Yet Command and Conquer- Generals skips real bad, and Sacred does it too. What could this be?? How can I fix this?? Any ideas would be appreciated.

Mar 7, 2006, 04:37 AM	#2
calidan Frozen in Carbonite Join Date: Mar 2003 Location: Kansas City, MO Posts: 1,409 Rep Power: 0 System Specs	Are you using USB or Firewire? If it's USB, you should make sure that the drive is USB 2.0 and that your USB ports are USB 2.0. USB 2.0 has speeds up to 480Mbps. Personnelly I would of got a drive that is 7200 RPMs and had an external power supply. __________________ Steam Community :: ID :: calidan "Don't try to be like Jackie. There is only one Jackie.... Study computers instead." - Jackie Chan

Mar 11, 2006, 03:24 PM	Thread Starter #3
kmansp DriverHeaven Junior Member Join Date: Mar 2003 Location: colorado springs Posts: 23 Rep Power: 0	Well the thing of it was, my old ion drive was 5400 rps as well as this western drive external drive. I had no problems on that drive with skipping around. Then I thought maybe it was like you mentioned, that it needed it's own power supply. The ion drive had to be plugged in to even work, but the western digital drive doesn't, even though it has an optional AC power cord. So I plugged it in and let it run on it's own power, but it didn't matter. It still was skipping on certain games. What doesn't make sense is Doom 3, Quake4, and Splinter cell: chaos t heory run smoothly from it. But Far cry will skip on it, as well as an older game such as age of mythology or baldur's gate 2. Also, all of the USB ports are 2.0.

Mar 11, 2006, 04:22 PM	#4
Nacht ein Krieger Join Date: Jan 2004 Location: Clemson Uni Posts: 3,127 Rep Power: 0	external drives are meant for storage, not really for installing more games/software. internal drives are going to be much faster for those types of things. the problem is probably the enclosure itself. the box has to convert the IDE signal to USB, and doing so in a rapid manner such as is needed in a video game would be problematic.