Small problem

posted on May 24th, 2011, 2:05 pm

Backups never really came up, so I haven't bothered with them before. I'm getting an External hard drive soon, so I'll probably copy important things (games) to that when I get it.

How big are they usually?

you cant copy a game install to the external HD because the game is almost always an installed program, with pointless registry entries. you'd have to reinstall the games. unless you're talking about the install files for games (like disk images, isos, etc).

save games vary depending on the game. saving at a checkpoint takes practically no space, since it only has to remember your location and some parameters about the character (what guns you're carrying, how much ammo, health etc). saving in the middle of a level takes up more. in general save games shouldnt be that big.

posted on May 24th, 2011, 2:12 pm

Copy game files, reinstall later then overwrite the new game files with the older modified ones. The modifications I've made are what I usually tend to try to save, they're a lot more time-consuming than installing the base game. Though copying the A2 CD Image would be a good thing to remember.

I mean the Externat drives, how much space do they have?

posted on May 24th, 2011, 2:25 pm

Copy game files, reinstall later then overwrite the new game files with the older modified ones. The modifications I've made are what I usually tend to try to save, they're a lot more time-consuming than installing the base game. Though copying the A2 CD Image would be a good thing to remember.

I mean the Externat drives, how much space do they have?

ah ok, you wanna preserve mods. i thought you were just talking about games in general.

the a2 disk is something i keep precious, since its so damn expensive.

i got a 500 GB = 0.5 TB hard drive for 50 quid about a year and a half ago. so you should easily get 500 GB for that price now.

a quick amazon search gives:
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Western-Digita ... 982&sr=8-1

1 TB for 42 quid with free delivery.

i have a similar hard drive. usb 2 isnt that fast for 1TB of data, but it gets the job done for me. you dont need to leave it up permanently, it only has 2 cables to connect so it isnt difficult to box it up repeatedly for storage.

posted on May 26th, 2011, 9:58 pm

It bears mentioning though that the large the drive is, the harder it hurts when it fails. I droped a 500 GB drive, 80% full, and obliterated a lot of stuff. I'd say 500 GB is the highest you should go for an external drive. That way when it fails you loose a lot less.