Can I keep WoW in the documents folder so that, when I reinstall Windows, I still have it? I am having a problem that copying my WoW to an external drive before reinstalling Windows will take over 1 hour because its 169GB for WoW. I also do not have much space left to get my other files, installers, etc. onto it. The external is an SSD, but for what ever reason the USB port is copying at 40 MB/s. I’ve tried other USB ports, and yes, my bios is up to date. It does not seem to help.
I do not really want to wait an hour to reinstall my entire machine. I seem to be having some issues with NVIDIA Broadcast with the latest Windows update, and my only option is to reinstall my whole computer.
Can I just move the WoW folder to documents? There is a way to reinstall Windows without losing all your documents. Though I am not sure what that process looks like with Windows 11, as I plan on switching to Windows 11 today.
Then I would move it back to c:\program files or just run it from the documents folder if wow permits me. Thoughts?
The best way to do this is to only copy your Interface, WTF and Cache folders. Then once your computer is ready, do a clean fresh install of WoW and add those 3 folders back in.
Okay, but it has to redownload WoW, and my download speed is actually slower than 20 MB/sec. Sometimes its like 8-10 mbits/sec. Though we did upgrade our internet last year, so maybe its faster now? I’ve not really had to download anything major in a long time. I did not get cable until 2010 or 2011 because I live in the countryside. I just waited the full hour and copied it to the external. The OBS/Broadcast problem I am facing is not WoW-related. My WoW also seems to be running fine. Though I think I will do a complete WoW reinstall, its not a bad idea. WoW was failing to run 2 copies at once. Someone said turning off Discord and Chrome graphics hardware acceleration helps big time. Though I did not have this problem with my 2500k and 7850 gfx card, so why are my 3070 and 5800x causing problems? I don’t know. I’ve not tried starting 2 WoWs since turning off hardware acceleration; maybe that’s the only setting I needed to change?
Just got a lot of computer problems in general, so decided to do a fresh install.
If you re-download the game, the entire game doesn’t have to be downloaded before you can play it.
Remember, back in the days, people used to download the client and patches with internet speed way below 20Mb/sec so the client has been build to be able to run the game and download missing data while the game is running.
Or just put the game on download before you go to bed and you will have it done when you wake up.
Actually no, back in the day, I bought hard copy all the way up to wrath. I did not get cable until 2010, it took like 12 hours to download mop on my 8mbps cable lol. It was not even playable for like 1-2 hours when I would do a complete reinstall lol, luckily I did not have to do this because I only played MoP for 1 month if that.
I have no reason to login if I do not have the whole game downloaded anyways lol. Creates too much latency and a poor experience; its fine for setting up addons, sometimes, only sometimes because sometimes icons do not even download. That might be it. Just gotta wait the 1hr+ regardless, lol.
You can reinstall windows without removing the wow-client as long as you dont format the disk or remove the partition, either by using the repair option or just make a clean install. The later one will remove all apps / settings in windows. Dont just format / remove the partition on your drive and it should work.
Regarding playing the game with background downloading, this explains some how it works:
Reg. the 40 MB/sec limit , it sounds like your computer has USB 2.0 and that’s the top transfer speed of that USB-port. And you are using a external SSD, i guess you are on a laptop so it might be hard to add another drive into it?
Hey, uhm, yeah, but I think you have to put it in a different folder. If its in the program folders, I think Windows removes them when you choose the remove all programs option when you reinstall. Which I had to choose because I was having lots of different bugs and issues all over my computer.
Wow does not acualy require a install as long as you leave it in a folder that is not going to be deleted during the windows reinstall . You just reinstall the battle netbapp and point it to the correct folder
Thank you so much. I was not sure if Windows would delete certain folders if you told it to reinstall but to keep your “Personal Files.”
I did not know what “Person Files” meant. Could that be a custom-pathed “Downloads” folder stored in C:\Downloads, just not in the “Program Files” folder?
I now understand that it keeps the contents of the subfolders in your “Documents” folder. Still unsure about the C:\custom folder question?
Also, because WoW is not an installed program, will re-installing Windows using remove “Programs & Settings” but keep “Personal Files” actually remove WoW from C:\Program Files\WoW? or will it not because WoW is not an actual installed program?
you can install wow on a different drive (D) as long you have battle.net installed on the same drive … wow and the launcher does not have to be on (C: drive to work
You should never install complex programs in Documents on Windows.
You are very likely to run into issues with permissions. People who only use their computer recreationally should generally leave the folder alone save for what’s automatically sorted into it by Windows default.
Having it directly in the drive isn’t just fine, it’s actually what I would suggest (so long as the program is trusted.)
Let games and programs you know less about get put into the Program Files locations.