Forum Discussion

7 years ago

Solved

Recommendations for external hard drive for sims 4

Hey, so I'm planning to buy an external hard drive to play sims 4 on. I had to uninstall the game last year because I ran out of space and I needed the space for school work, but I really miss sims 4...

mac

Tremayne4260
7 years ago
@evahno1 I have a Seagate and they are very good hard drives and last for a long time. I got mine at Sam's Club (if you're in the US) and it was very reasonably priced. Not sure if Costco carried them or not.
Please remember if you install Sims 4 on the external drive, you need to make space for the Sims 4 folder (found Documents > Electronic Arts > Sims 4) as this is where the game always looks for your saved games. Saved games cannot be stored on the external drive in order to play. You can make a backup copy sure. Also, the game may lag a little due to the fact that it has to get the data from the external drive while playing. Also, limit your CC as that goes in the Sims 4 folder as well and if you can't afford to delete or store your other data on a USB thumb drive, you should not download a lot of it or mods. Just as an example, my Sims 4 folder is about 1.1GB big and I use very little CC (probably about 10 to 15 pieces at most) and no mods. I also own all the content for Sims 4.
Hope this helps.

Tremayne4260

Hero

7 years ago

@evahno1 I have a Seagate and they are very good hard drives and last for a long time. I got mine at Sam's Club (if you're in the US) and it was very reasonably priced. Not sure if Costco carried them or not.

Please remember if you install Sims 4 on the external drive, you need to make space for the Sims 4 folder (found Documents > Electronic Arts > Sims 4) as this is where the game always looks for your saved games. Saved games cannot be stored on the external drive in order to play. You can make a backup copy sure. Also, the game may lag a little due to the fact that it has to get the data from the external drive while playing. Also, limit your CC as that goes in the Sims 4 folder as well and if you can't afford to delete or store your other data on a USB thumb drive, you should not download a lot of it or mods. Just as an example, my Sims 4 folder is about 1.1GB big and I use very little CC (probably about 10 to 15 pieces at most) and no mods. I also own all the content for Sims 4.

Hope this helps.

evahno1
7 years ago
I have enough space for the Electronic Arts folder, so that's no problem, and I use only a few mods and cc, but I think I'm gonna drop most of the ones I have anyway. And I'm used to lag - I've never actually played sims on a good gaming pc, so it's been laggy for as long as I can remember and it can't possibly get as bad as it was on the stationary I had some time ago (I could barely move the camera in the game due to lag) Thank you for your answer. I'll consider the Seagate 🙂
- Tremayne4260
  Hero
  7 years ago
  Most welcome! 🙂
PrincessVanVan
3 years ago
Hi, what do you mean by saved games cannot be stored on the external drive in order to play. You can make a backup copy? I’ve been trying to do research about getting an external hard drive and putting my sims game on there to free up space on my Mac. Could you explain further ?
- Bluebellflora
  Hero+
  3 years ago
  @PrincessVanVan
  
  You can change the game library location in Origin to store the game on an external drive. You will need these instructions https://answers.ea.com/t5/Origin-Mac-Client-Technical/Solution-Can-t-find-External-Hard-Drive-in-Origin-MAC/m-p/8686088#M138055
  
  To store the Sims 4 folder which contains your saves, mods etc. on an external drive you have to create a symlink - https://answers.ea.com/t5/Technical-Issues-Mac/-Creating-a-symlink-in-macOS-to-store-the-Sims-4-folder-on-an/td-p/12329439
  - PrincessVanVan
    3 years ago
    @Bluebellflora Thank you so much, I will be getting an external in the mail soon and this will be so helpful, I’ll reply back again to let you know how it went. Thanks again!