Can you install on SD Card?

Ciovala

I have a MacBook Air 2014 and there isn't enough free space on the main disk. Is it possible to install it on an SD card? I have one already on this Mac, but since it's for work I have it encrypted and it's also quite full. The newer cards are pretty quick, but I know it won't be anywhere near as fast as a normal HD let alone the SSD... Just want to know if you can do it at all.

Uberkull

Why not go SSD mounted in a external drive case? I do this for console with a USB 3.0 input and it's actually faster for load times than the hard wired internal drive.

SSD Drive

SSD Enclosure

The enclosure supports UASP spec which when plugged into a USB 3.0 port on your Mac is blazing fast.

So for a little more than a SD card, you have a SSD with ESO running faster than your internal drive.

smacx250

I got one of these (well, an older version) for a macbook air - works great:

http://www.amazon.com/MyDigitalSSD-SuperSpeed-Portable-External-Storage/dp/B00EZ2FRU2

Uberkull

smacx250 wrote: »

I got one of these (well, an older version) for a macbook air - works great:

http://www.amazon.com/MyDigitalSSD-SuperSpeed-Portable-External-Storage/dp/B00EZ2FRU2

Yup, even better. Key is that UASP support.

Ciovala

I guess this means the game doesn't have any problems being installed into a custom location?

Also, how much space does it use once installed? As this is just for the game, I'd rather get a 120GB USB3.0 SSD instead of a bigger one.

Uberkull

Ciovala wrote: »

I guess this means the game doesn't have any problems being installed into a custom location?

Also, how much space does it use once installed? As this is just for the game, I'd rather get a 120GB USB3.0 SSD instead of a bigger one.

I'm using a 120g and have 4 PC games on there. Think ESO only takes 60 gig.

r.jan_emailb16_ESO

I'd say it's no problem, since you can just copy/cut + paste the ESO folder to a new place and it works fine.

Edit: "no problem" as far as the SD card is concerned, not sure about the MacBook though

KhajitFurTrader

Ciovala wrote: »

I have a MacBook Air 2014 and there isn't enough free space on the main disk. Is it possible to install it on an SD card? I have one already on this Mac, but since it's for work I have it encrypted and it's also quite full. The newer cards are pretty quick, but I know it won't be anywhere near as fast as a normal HD let alone the SSD... Just want to know if you can do it at all.

"Mac notebooks use the USB bus to communicate with the SD card slot and have a maximum speed of up to 480 Mbit/s. Mac desktops use the PCIe bus to communicate with the SD card slot and can transfer data at a faster rate." (https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT204384)

So, a SSD (or even a HDD) in an external Thunderbolt case might be the faster solution, but of course, it's also pricier.

That being said, I used to play LOTRO (using Windows in Boot Camp) from an UHS-1 SDHC card back in the day, because MMOs tend to load small chunks of randomly placed data all the time, so IOPS are a bit more important than transfer rate alone. It also had the charm of being more quiet, because the HDD seeking noises were out of the picture.

It should work with ESO. There had been some issues with the game not being installed in the default path in the past, but I hardly heard anything about those lately. And it shouldn't be something which couldn't be fixed by the creative use of symbolic links...


To answer the other question: the minimum recommended free disk space is 85 GB, mainly because of the patch data download extraction, and application. The actual, current game files take up a space of 45.09 GB at the moment, but this number will only grow over time.

Ciovala

Thanks, guys - all the information is much appreciated. The MacBook Air is a temporary situation as it's my work laptop really, but I won't have my PC built again until this autumn. I'll get the lacie 120GB or a UASP USB 3.0 case + install my own SSD for now (in UK, different options available here).

GW2 runs in low fairly well, outside of big fights in WvW on it, so I hope ESO is similar...

Edit: Looks like I'd be out of luck? According to the pinned FAQ for the Mac:

Mac installer cannot install to any drive but the main drive.
However, after installation, the "Zenimax" folder can be copied to any drive.

Guess I'd need to Bootcamp the external disk? (don't have a separate Mac to do this though)

Seedier

Just copy the Zenimax folder to a USB key of suitable size (i've used a 128b one), and it works flawlessly.
I'm a bit confused about your primary system though since you mention bootcamp and building a PC in the autumn... don't think you can run the PC installation on OSX but USB key works just fine for Windows ESO using bootcamp.

Ciovala

Thanks, Seedier.

I just have a Macbook Air with the pre-installed 128GB SSD and a 128GB SDXC card in it. The problem is you have to install the game into the main hard drive first, and I can't make the 85GB free the game apparently wants just to install. This leaves me with the only option being to sort out Windows running off of USB 3.0 (Using WinToUSB for example).

The comment about this autumn was just saying that I am building a gaming PC this autumn. This is my work laptop since I gave my gaming PC to my partner recently...

duncan_cougarpreeb18_ESO

actually have the PTS on an SD card (128 GB one). Works well enough compared to internal SSD.

Issues are mostly with abysmal graphic performance on the Mac (latest maxed out iMac here), not the drive(s).

Ciovala

As an update - I used WinToUSB and installed Window 10 on a SSD drive in a USB 3.0 enclosure. The performance is quite acceptable, in the parameters of it being run on a MacBook Air. Any performance issues are around the lack of a dedicated GPU, but load times are very nice and not far off of my PC desktop.