Help installing on 2nd Harddrive

[C19W83]

I purchased a 2nd harddrive solely for the purpose of being able to play multiple versions of RTW and I've come to the realization that I have no idea what I'm doing. I created three partitions for my external harddrive. I then did a clean install of RTW on my C drive. I added the 1.2, 1.3, 1.5 patch and then downloaded SPQR and had no problems. My computer played it very well. Now, I transferred this to my 1st Partition on my external hdd. I opened RTW, created armies for a custom battle and it CTD.

I next checked my second partition, which I had transferred my clean install of RTW to and it opens, I get to the first screen (single player, multiplayer, etc.) and I click single player and all options are invalid (grayed out).

Is it that I must install a clean version of RTW to each of these partitions instead of doing it on my internal drive and transferring them there? If so, how do I do that with Firefox (I just downloaded Firefox, but it sends all downloads to desktop).

I know these are all incredibly n00b questions, but I'd greatly appreciate anyone's help on this.

[TerraHero]

If you can do 2 seperate clean instals thats always beter.

My wild guess would be that you got a problem with the registry, as it is located at C:etcetc but you run it from somewhere else.

[MasterAdnin]

I do not know what the problem is with your computer, but this should be posted in the technical support forums, not here:wink:.

Good luck,
Adnan

[Belisarius]

You'll get more help from the Tech Guys in the Basement, Moved.

[kid]

hum... am I the only one here who's confused?
Firstly, I don't see the reason for the partitions. Are they simply to seperate different RTW installations? If so, you'll ultimately waste space. You'll end up with small amounts of space on each partition, to little to do anything with, but without partitions, these small amounts of space would be accumulated, and enough for another game/movie/whatever. In general, partitions are only useful if you might format one part of the drive, but want to keep the rest safe, or to dual boot operating systems.

As TerraHero says, it's always better to install in the destination directory rather than move it. What's the problem? You talk about firefox? I don't understand what that has to do with installing RTW. Is it to do with the SPQR intsallation? In which case, it's perfectly allright to move individual or modified files into a RTW installation, regardless of where it is, it's the original installation that shouldn't be moved.
I'm not sure what you mean about firefox, so I'm taking a bit of a shot in the dark. Hope it helps, and if it doesn't, please elaborate.

P.S: There are 2 different programs that allow you to run different mods on a single RTW installation. I can't remember the names offhand, but check out the mod workshop or the technical help center.

[Aristocrat]

Alright, I'll answer.
1)Look for the guide (on this forum somewhere, maybe in the Rome General Discussion) on how to install multiple copies of RTW.
2)I'll give a quick run through anyway, but first, your partitions.

Partitions are treated as individual hard drives (by windows) except for the fact that if two partitions are on the same drive if your running a program from both partitions at once, you will get lag. For your problem however, that isn't important.
When partitioning a hard drive, make your partitions relatively big, depending on drive size 30 ro 40 gigabytes is what I use in systems I build.
(except for windows).
Ok, now for RTW.
Delete all your copies of RTW, it sounds like they are stuffed and it's just plain easier working from a clean slate, so delete them (removing them via windows add/remove programs tool) then check your registry (google the free program regedit...it will do this easily and simply, you just click one button) for left over entries.
Now install RTW, patch it to whichever patch you want (if all the mods you want to use are built on the latest patch just patch it to 1.5).
Now, go into your Rome - Total War folder and select all the folders and files (from the base folder) and copy them (ctrl c, or just right click and press copy), then in whatever partition you want create a new folder for the mod (eg, for SPQR create a folder called SPQR or something), and in that folder paste all the copied files (ctrl v, or right click and select paste).
Now install the mod to that copy of the game (leave your original alone), and create a shortcut from the exe file in that folder (right click the exe file, create shortcut), call it whatever the hell you want (rename it if you want, right click the shortcut and select rename), give it whatever icon you want (again right click the shortcut, select properties and click the change icon button) and move the shortcut to the desktop.

A lot of this goes into probaly to much simple detail but I'm not sure how computer literate you are so I just layed it out.

[Kaweh]

I've posted it once, and I'll post it again:

The easiest way is: after you've installed RomeTW, rename the folder "Rome - Total War". Run the uninstall programm, it will delete all registry entries, but the files in the renamed folder will stay. Then you can install a new copy of RTW from your CD. Much better than having to copy-paste this large Data folder, and no problems with registry entries.

K.K

[Aristocrat]

I find my way easier, saves having to go through the installation process again.
You install once, make a new folder, copy the game into it, and rinse and repeat as needed, no problem with the registry there.
I just mentioned registry entries in my post before as RTW has issues sometimes, and the way the topic started went about it might have done something, my bet is he doesn't even need to worry about the registry, but I can't be sure, and couldn't have been bothered replying again if he had (I'm lazy, not mean...just lazy).

[C19W83]

Thanks all for the responses. Alright, I first tried it the way Pompey suggested:
- uninstalled RTW
- defragged, reinstalled
- installed patch
- copied files in RTW folder to my RTR folder in one partition
- I install RTR to that partition, but when I run the program (RTR in this case), the destination folder is only my internal C drive (not the drive with partition) and I am not given the option of placing it anywhere else except the C drive.

So I just stopped there and didn't continue to avoid the hassle of uninstalling everything, to install it again in case I was doing something wrong. So I'll leave this be until I hear from one of you guys.

...Still searching for the guide on this...

[Garbarsardar]

Thanks all for the responses. Alright, I first tried it the way Pompey suggested:
- uninstalled RTW
- defragged, reinstalled
- installed patch
- copied files in RTW folder to my RTR folder in one partition
- I install RTR to that partition, but when I run the program (RTR in this case), the destination folder is only my internal C drive (not the drive with partition) and I am not given the option of placing it anywhere else except the C drive.

So I just stopped there and didn't continue to avoid the hassle of uninstalling everything, to install it again in case I was doing something wrong. So I'll leave this be until I hear from one of you guys.

...Still searching for the guide on this...

Here you are: http://www.twcenter.net/forums/showt...light=multiple
Hope this helps...

[C19W83]

Thanks all. I figured it out. I got caught up on the very last step where I had to save the mod to the partition bc I couldn't set my destination to the external harddrive through the 'browse' function on the installer. All I had to do is type in the destination manually and it worked perfectly. I really appreciate everyone's help!

[Aristocrat]

RTR doesn't allow you to choose the path?
Hmm, if I'm right (and I'm not sure) RTR still won't update any registry entries (you might be better off asking in the RTR forums for this), I'm not sure though as I haven't played RTR for ages (and I know I was able to choose the path to install to then).
But assuming it doesn't change any registry entries (meaning it just runs through the exe file...ignore that if you don;t see what I'm getting at), just make a backup of you original RTW patched to 1.5 (put it in a folder called backup), install RTR to the original installtion of RTW, and then move that to wherever you want on your computer.
Then rename your backup to the original folder name (Rome - Total War...I think).
You don;t have to go through this for other mods such as SPQR and EB as they let you choose the patch, so you are probaly better off asking at the RTR forums if you can choose the path, I'd check myself, but RTR was on (now dead) USB drive, and Im not downloading that monster again.