Need help: Anyone has PTS and LIVE in two different Hard Drives?

TehMagnus

Hello,

I have a small issue concerning tomorrow's update. I currently have ESO installed in my 120GB SSD drive (which only contains my OS & ESO).

The problem I'm facing is that I only have 5GB left of space and I wont be able to install tomorrow's update in the SSD without removing the PTS files from my computer.
I also have a 1TB SATA drive which has more than enough space to hold the game.

My question is the following:
I would like to move the PTS on the SATA drive (thus clearing space on my SSD for the 12GB update) and keep LIVE on the SSD.

Is this possible? Has anyone done this already or can customer service help me? I used to have the game in that SATA drive prior to formatting a couple of weeks back so I shouldn't have any DLL issues or anything like it since the files are still there and I actually copied them to my SSD after formating (and installing but not updating ESO in the SSD), maybe I'll have some registry issues though?

The alternative is just removing PTS while I find a solution but I'd really like to be able to keep testing PTS, especially for update 6!

Thanks in advance.

ZOS_GaryA

Hey there @magnusnet,

Short answer: Yes, this is possible. Possibly long explanation on how to do it incoming.

Essentially, you're going to need two different versions of the launcher installed in order for this to work. This makes sense when you look at the file system. Head to C:\Program Files (x86)\Zenimax Online. You'll notice a folder for the Launcher, as well as a folder for each game build you have installed (one for PTS, one for Live, and one for LiveEU, depending on what you have installed).

The Launcher in this folder accesses builds share this folder. So if you would like two builds in two places, you'll need two launchers. Hope that makes sense so far!

The easiest way to make space for your move and maintain both installations is to do this:

1. Create a new folder called Zenimax Online on your 1TB hard drive
2. Copy the Launcher folder and the PTS folder from (C:\Program Files (x86)\Zenimax Online) into this new folder
3. Open the Launcher folder on the 1TB hard drive and run the launcher. It may begin to install the NA server. To stop this, click Game Options above news, select Settings, and disable auto-updates. Then click Game Options again and choose Cancel.
4. Make sure everything is good to go with PTS and that it operates correctly
5. Delete the PTS folder from the Zenimax Online folder on your SSD
6. Open the launcher
7. Follow the same steps in Step 3 to prevent PTS from downloading/updating on your SSD.

In the end, you'll end up with two Zenimax Online folders, one on the SSD and one on the HDD. By alternating between the launchers, you'll be able to have two installations on two drives.

Hope that helps! If not, let us know and we'll be happy to do what we can!

Hiiko

Listen to Gary's mod.

Randactyl

Alternately, you can use symbolic links and retain the convenience of using a single launcher.

1. Download and install Link Shell Extension and it's prerequisite - http://schinagl.priv.at/nt/hardlinkshellext/linkshellextension.html#download
2. Move your already installed PTS folder (presumably in C:\Program Files (x86)\Zenimax Online) to your 1TB drive.
3. Right click on "The Elder Scrolls Online PTS" (Which you should have just moved to its spacious new home) and click "Pick Link Source"
4. Go back to your ESO install directory (again, presumably C:\Program Files (x86)\Zenimax Online)
5. Right click in the empty space and choose "Drop Link As -> Symbolic Link"
6. Open the ESO launcher and go about your business as normal.

This strategy can be used for the live version of ESO as well as any of your other games from Steam, Origin, etc.

TehMagnus

Thanks a lot for this @ZOS_GaryA and @Randactyl i'll be sure to test this later tonight in order to get ready for tomorrow . Will let you know how it goes!

TehMagnus

Thanks @ZOS_GaryA the procedure worked perfectly when done like that and also thanks big time @Randactyl, I use symbolic links in Linux environments but had no idea it could also be done in windows!

Why isn't that included by default in Windows? I'll be using this a lot for sure from now on ^^.