Running Trainz Mac from an external HD

[alexl102]

I've reached a stage where my mac is almost full and I need to clear things off. Having both Trainz Mac and Trainz Mac 2 obviously takes up a fair bit of room. The obvious solution is to remove TM1 but I don't wish to lose what I have installed on it and it's not a simple job to transfer everything over. So I was wondering if moving TM1 onto a hard drive would still allow me to play it when the hard drive was plugged in?

If so, what else do I need to do to make sure everything moves across?

 

[NeonTheGriffon]

I've reached a stage where my mac is almost full and I need to clear things off. Having both Trainz Mac and Trainz Mac 2 obviously takes up a fair bit of room. The obvious solution is to remove TM1 but I don't wish to lose what I have installed on it and it's not a simple job to transfer everything over. So I was wondering if moving TM1 onto a hard drive would still allow me to play it when the hard drive was plugged in?

If so, what else do I need to do to make sure everything moves across?

Could anyone confirm that USB Transfer Speed bottlenecking wouldn't affect trainz performance? I'd think that would really impact it, but maybe I'm in the wrong.

 

[alexl102]

I would normally use Firewire800, when it's not constantly disconnecting at the first sign of someone breathing near it.

 

[JCitron]

USB 3.0 performance is quite good, or at least it is on the PC, and probably the same on the MAC. I've run my TS12 from my external drive when I've traveled with my Alienware because the internal drive is a bit on the small size on the laptop.

Regarding the disconnects with the Firewire interface. This has been a longtime issue with this and probably why it isn't used too much anymore. A brother-in-law of mine had a Firewire connection on his camera which used to do this all the time when he was transferring files between the video camera and the PC. Eventually he resorted to using a USB card reader to transfer the data since it was more reliable. After doing some research, it appears to be the same issue as seen here:

https://discussions.apple.com/thread/2643206?start=0&tstart=0

John

 

[alexl102]

Hi John,

Its not quite that. It's more that whereas USB stays connected unless it's actually pulled out a bit, the firewire can't take the slightest bit of movement without disconnecting.

I have USB3 capability on both the Mac and hard drive; would that work?

 

[JCitron]

Hi John,

Its not quite that. It's more that whereas USB stays connected unless it's actually pulled out a bit, the firewire can't take the slightest bit of movement without disconnecting.

I have USB3 capability on both the Mac and hard drive; would that work?

Yup. This is a common issue with these connectors. I found this also with FireWire and with some worn out USB cables. With the USB cables, I've squeezed the cable end a tiny bit to tighten up the connector. I never tried that with the FireWire though.

I don't see why this wouldn't work for you any different than it does now. I'm not that familiar with how your Apple works, keep that in mind. The worst thing you can do is try it and if it doesn't work, and then you'll know. You might have to open up the folder where Trainz is installed instead of running it from the link on your desktop, for example.

John

 

[cascaderailroad]

If you have an old PC it probaby does not have USB 3.0 ... so if you connect an old PC to an external hard drive that has USB 3.0, it probably only is USB 2.0 ???

 

[alexl102]

Cascade, you're correct but I have a mac which is only 3 years old and does have USB 3.0 ports. It's getting full because I'm a music student and a combination of audio files and recording/composing projects have taken up a huge amount of space.