Forum Discussion

melodyca's avatar
13 years ago
Solved

Can I move the Bioware folder from C:Documents to my D Drive?

My C Drive is a Solid State Drive and I would really like to make more room. Is there a way to move the Bioware folder to another drive without messing everything up? Any help would be appreciated 🙂

  • Edit 2015/10/04: There have been some who have had problems with the change in the configuration file as explained here in the original. However, I would recommend you to try it first since it keeps the changes to the Dragon Age Origins program. Nevertheless, try the next solution of making a symbolic link instead (from my own reply on page 2):


    @lonori wrote:

    I'm really sad to here that it doesn't seem to be working for people. Furthermore, I can't come up with any other configuration setting to change. However, there's always the solution that works outside Dragon Age Origins (on a operative system level). The idea is to create a symbolic link between the current folder path to where you want the stuff to be stored. This will make it look like there is a folder in My Documents that is called Bioware while in reality it only links to another folder stored somewhere else (kind of like the famous shortcuts). In windows you do it by doing the following:

    1. Move your Bioware folder to its new location.
    2. Open a Command line prompt (press windows button + r on the keyboard, the enter cmd in the run prompt and press enter).
    3. Make sure that there is no folder called "C:\users\<your account name>\Documents\Bioware" before you do the next step (since it, potentially, could overwrite it. Not used to terminal in Windows but it definitely has the power to do so).
    4. Type in: mklink /J "C:\users\<your account name>\Documents\Bioware" "<new location of the folder, e.g: D:\SaveGames\Bioware>" (the "/J" tells the linker that it's going to be a dictionary junction, the first string is the location that you want to make a link from and the last string is the target of the link).
    5. Done!

    In the case that you only want to move a subpart of the Bioware folder you'll just have to change the first string (and maybe you would want to change the second string to point to a more nicely named folder). Furthermore, on mac (and linux for that matter) the command would be: ln -s source_file target_file.


    Original message:

    You could move the file but you would have to change the config file so that it reads (and writes hopefully) from the new folder.


    Haven't worked with .xml and I haven't tried this on my own so I can't guarantee that it will work, but I think it will. Just make backups before you try.

    1. Make a backup on everything you change and store it somewhere safe.
    2. Copy the folder to the new drive.
    3. Open the file DAOriginsConfig.xml in any text editor (notepad, notepad++, emacs, etc.). The file is located in {game directory}\data\
    4. Don't forget to make a backup!
    5. Replace all found entries of <string name="USERDATA_DIR">${CSIDL_PERSONAL}\BioWare\Dragon Age</string> with
      <string name="USERDATA_DIR">NEW_DIR</string> where NEW_DIR is the directory you copied the folder to, eg. D:\Games\Saves\BioWare\DragonAge
    6. Make a quick test to see if it works to load.
    7. Make a new save.
    8. Restart the game and check so the new save worked properly.
    9. Save all the previous backups just in case that you encounter an unknown error later on.
    10. Remove the old save folder if you needed space
    11. It would be kind if you could report if it works so that the rest of the community knows.

    Good luck and don't be afraid to ask if there's anything else you want to ask about,

    Lonori

16 Replies

  • I've attempted your method on 2 separate computers...  It's like DAO isn't even reading the config file.

    Create the exact file path, used that path to replace in the config file (every instance of the original file path), it ain't working.

    I'm trying to just get this method to work by using D:\Blah as the file.  To test it I removed the saved character from D:\Blah but it still had them from the BioWare Folder in MyDocuments.

    I have no idea what I'm doing wrong... The only thing I can think of is that I'm using an Origin App cloud install. (Confirmed, Out right deleted the DAOriginConfig.xml file nothing bad happened and it wasn't recreated)

    Edit: And for the record, I do not want to move my MyDocuments Folder...

    Edit 2: Never mind, I discovered a 3rd method that does the same thing.  I created a junction between the 2 folders so that the computer thinks it is 2 different locations at once, But it's stored in the second Location.

    In Administrator Command Prompt: mklink /j "C:\Users\"YourUserName"\Documents\Bioware" "D:\Games"

    This command creates a Junction between those 2 locations.  The only thing is that the First file Cannot exist, In Other words you have to Backup the BioWare Folder and then delete it from Documents (BTW the reason I use Documents instead of My Documents is because of Windows 10).

  • Hi,

    I'm really sad to here that it doesn't seem to be working for people. Furthermore, I can't come up with any other configuration setting to change. However, there's always the solution that works outside Dragon Age Origins (on a operative system level). The idea is to create a symbolic link between the current folder path to where you want the stuff to be stored. This will make it look like there is a folder in My Documents that is called Bioware while in reality it only links to another folder stored somewhere else (kind of like the famous shortcuts). In windows you do it by doing the following:

    1. Move your Bioware folder to its new location.
    2. Open a Command line prompt (press windows button + r on the keyboard, the enter cmd in the run prompt and press enter).
    3. Make sure that there is no folder called "C:\users\<your account name>\Documents\Bioware" before you do the next step (since it, potentially, could overwrite it. Not used to terminal in Windows but it definitely has the power to do so).
    4. Type in: mklink /J "C:\users\<your account name>\Documents\Bioware" "<new location of the folder, e.g: D:\SaveGames\Bioware>" (the "/J" tells the linker that it's going to be a dictionary junction, the first string is the location that you want to make a link from and the last string is the target of the link).
    5. Done!

    In the case that you only want to move a subpart of the Bioware folder you'll just have to change the first string (and maybe you would want to change the second string to point to a more nicely named folder). Furthermore, on mac (and linux for that matter) the command would be: ln -s source_file target_file.

    Now I just made a small test to see that it's working by moving everything and checking so that I can find the saves and it seems to be working (even when installing the game from Origin).

    Finally, shame on programmers who has configuration files but don't use them. That isn't handy when it comes to maintaining code or for users to change the configuration. I could go on and rant about it but will just leave it with that.

    Anyway, try the symbolic link solution and come back to me to see if it works.

  • Anonymous's avatar
    Anonymous
    10 years ago

    There's a much easier way to do this, and it worked for me(On a Win7 OS). Move your "My Documents" folder, and all subfolders, to the secondary drive. Then, click start menu, click your username, right click the My Documents icon, and choose properties. Go to the Location tab, click the "Move" button, and select the folder's location on your secondary drive. For example, mine is "E:\\My Documents". From then on, DA:O will automatically follow the file path to the save games being on the other drive.

    Edit: Meant to say that there was a better way to make your bioware games point to the right save game folders after moving the bioware folders to another drive.

  • @lonori Hi Hi you posted this so long ago but im just really happy) Just downloaded Dragon Age bc what the heck its something I used to play but after waiting a few ours it wouldnt let me so me and my sleep deprived self had to go searching for answers and I found your thing shortly after- not im going to go play da and probably pass out 🙂) thanks a lot though!
  • Mintlani's avatar
    Mintlani
    4 years ago
    @Creep_Show1334 Oh my gosh thank you so much this works with a little tweaking today - I was worried that I'd have to do the more complicated stuff, but no it works super easily! I have windows 11 now and this still works. First, create a folder for "documents" in the drive you want it to be (I created the folder under the folder with my username - Don't know if it works in other locations) and then go back to the documents from the original drive and right-click. Go to properties, location, move, and then choose the folder you just created. That previous folder should then merge with the original folder. Super simple. Very easy. Super grateful! Actually did this to all of my folders from the original drive because the storage my computer came with is the size of a thumb.
  • I'm closing this thread to stop it from being necroed.

    If you have any issues with Dragon Age, please make a new topic about your problems and what kind of steps you have tried to solve them.

    /Atic