Moving files to my external drive?

Question

A lot of programs i want to move give me a message saying something like "moving this folder may make certain programs not work" is there a way to safely move them?

Answer 1

*IF* you're trying to move files\programs that you've INSTALLED on your C: Drive they won't work.

However, what you MAy be able to do is Install them ON your external drive. Then UNinstall them off your C: DRIVE.


However, SOME programs will not allow you to install them on any drive other than the C: Drive .

*IF* they do allow it, you will see an Option during the Install asking you IF you want to install on the C: drive or give you the Option to select another drive to install on.

Answer 2

NOOOOOO!

Most programs won't work if you just move them to ANY other drive internal or external.

When you installed the programs many made absolute references to some file locations that may not apply after a move.

The registry references almost certainly won't change properly.

You could try "cloning" (like with the program Ghost) the drive and then deleting stuff on the external drive you don't want leaving a copy on the original drive but I would bet a ton of money that you can't move a large number of programs without massive headaches.

There has got to be a better way to do what you really want to do. Try something different.

Answer 3

Programs rely on other files in order to operate. If you just copy one or a few files and not all files, the program will not work. There are two workaorunds, you can reinstall the program from scratch.

Second, you may take an image of the drive as a whole. For that you will need a special software.

Answer 4

The actual program files themselves (usually stored in c:\Program Files) also place information in the registry and other places on your hard drive so if you just cut and past them onto your external hard drive they stand a high chance of not working. The only way to reliably transfer them would be to uninstall (use control panel add/remove programs) and then reinstall. However many large files eg music, photograph and video files are just data files and you can easily transfer them without any damage. You probably have them stored in My Documents.

If you want to free up space on your hard drive I would start by moving the contents of My document.

If you want to find out how much space you have on your hard drive double click on My Computer and then right click on the C drive and choose properties. Good luck!

Answer 5

If it's a program you put on your computer with an installer, it probably won't work if you try to run it from a flash drive on another computer. This is because the installed creates files for your program in directories other than the one in "Program Files," such as "System32" and the Windows directory. When you copy the program's directory, these additional files aren't included.
If you need to run the program on another computer, try putting the installer on your drive and see how that works. Good luck.

Answer 6

The best way is uninstall it and reinstall back to the external drive.
If not, just don't bother what the message said, it is just warn you. When if some programs really occurred problem, then only move it back. If the Shortcut not work, just update the referring address.

Answer 7

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Answer 8

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