Need a computer geek to help me out here

Community General Discussion
1

So I’ve un into the unfortunate problem where my Windows is saying my SSD has less than 25% space on it. I literally have 42 MB of space left.

Unfortunately, in getting this laptop (I live in a 100 sq ft room with kitchen privileges) I was constrained financially. I got it because my last laptop was not going to be able to run Shadowlands anywhere near properly, both graphics wise and in the fact that it didn’t have an SSD of any size.

While I’m having to now drop my graphics to 5, this laptop is still serviceable, and I don’t have the money to be dropping on a new laptop if what I have is still working for the game alright.

So I have this setup:

256 GB Internal SSD drive. This is currently running Windows, my antvirus/ anti-malware programs (Norton 360, Malwarebytes and CCleaner), Battle.net and WoW. No other games or programs that I can delete. Spotify is also on here because I can’t move it elsewhere.

1 T internal HDD. This holds my other games and plays them fine, but they don’t have long loading screens.

1 T External SSD, with a USB C connector, with two cord options, USB-C to USB 3.0, or USB-C to USB-C.

My computer has both ports, currently it is plugged into my USB-C.

So WoW is either going to have to go on my HDD or my external SSD. Which would be faster in loading screens? I am a more casual player: I mostly roleplay, do all quests in an expansion, LFR and sometimes Normal raids, and low keys.

I have 16 GB RAM and 6.0 GB of dedicated graphics memory. (NVIDIA Geforce 1660 ti)

Let me know what you think would be the best seconday drive to run WoW on. I realize it’s probably not going to be quite as fast as in my internal one.

EDIT: The External SSD in question: ht tps://www.adata.com/us/consumer/819

2

So, here’s a suggestion, and keep in mind, I know a lot but not as much as some other people around here I’m sure.

Windows has to be on your primrary SSD, moving that is out of the question. Have you considered moving your antivirus to the internal HDD though? Your antivirus should be fine to be on the internal HDD.

As far as the external SSD goes, can you put WoW on it? Yes. Should you? Over the HDD yes. Shadowlands implemented the moving of one place to another via pretty looking loading screens (think Tazavesh second half or Oribos portals). Dragonflight will no doubt contain them as well, which is why the SSD is so highly recommended.

I would look into moving your antivirus (which some will argue is unnecessary but you do you) to the internal HDD first and then clear up space for WoW. If you can’t do that, the external SSD is (I think) a better option.

3

Unfortunately, Norton must be installed to the system drive. There was no option to change drives when I installed it, or I would have.

4

Fair enough, I’ve never checked that so I wasn’t sure.

5

back in August my 256gb SSD c:\ drive (with WoW on it) had only 9gb free. this laptop has space on the 2nd drive, an HDD, but the load screens are far too long.

i was able to get a 540gb replacement, clone my old 256gb SSD onto it, resize partitions, and then do a boot loader jerryrigfix to get it running. oddly, after all said and done, i only gained 150gb of free space. no big worry, as this laptop is 3 years old and i will get a new one within 2 years, no doubt.

6

That sounds really intense, more than I would know how to do. And what did you do about Windows? Did you have to buy another copy for your replacement drive?

7

this article explains most of the process of cloning a system drive to a bigger one:
https://www.ubackup.com/clone/clone-ssd-to-larger-ssd-4348.html

for me the cloning process went easy. but at first booting the cloned new SSD caused a Blue Screen error that took some extra googling to make work (something to do with GPT and secure boot). this part is why i wouldn’t recommend this method to anyone who doesn’t have previous repair experience

as long as you use the cloned SSD with the same motherboard, i presume (based on my experiences) you won’t need to purchase a new Windows license

8

I don’t know anything about external hardrives… But assuming the External SSD is faster than the internal HDD, i would say try out the external SSD. If for whatever reason it doesn’t work properly (idk for sure but i assume you would just need to keep it plugged in?) Then you can always move it to the internal HDD as a last resort.

Best case scenario: Everything runs smoothly

Worst case scenario: You have to uninstall WoW from the SSD and reinstall it on the HDD.

9

Why do you need norton? The windows anti-virus works just fine. I stopped using those third party bloated anti-viruses a long time ago. Never going back.

2 Likes
10

I have WoW on an external SSD. It runs fun. Rarely I will get a hiccup and get disconnected, I believe it’s more or less the external drive and the PC stopped talking.

I keep my music in game turned on, once my music starts stuttering i know to tab out of the game and back in and this seems to nudge the communication.

When I first started running off an external SSD I did notice the little guy would get warm, so I did purchase a small fan and would keep that on, keeping the drive cool.

I don’t have a top quality drive by any means.

Fwiw, I haven’t noticed any music stuttering since this new patch. I actually had very few problems overall.

11

So I went ahead and put it on my external SSD. So far it runs ok, loaded into Legion Dalaran not as fast as it was on my internal SSD but definitely faster than when on my old computer and it’s HDD.

Visually, I get a plit-second blip when I run around corners, mostly, and another every few seconds or so but it’s not long enough to be super annoying and I think with time I won’t even notice it.

Ran Headless Horseman and other than me still figuring out my talents and bars things went fairly well.