OOTP and External Hard Drives

Shucker · 08-11-2010, 02:25 PM

Has anyone utilized an external hard drive to facilitate playing a league on both a desktop and a laptop? Does that seem like a reasonable method to do so? I don't know much about external hard drives, but it seems like if the data was stored on one, it would be easy to transport the league back and forth.

Am I missing something? Am I naive? Is there anything else I ought to consider?

It's just that the whole zipping and unzipping the league files, getting those leagues file to the laptop and back, making sure everything gets in the right place seems cumbersome to me.

If anyone has a concise method of making this happen I would love to hear that as well.

Malleus Dei · 08-11-2010, 03:29 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Shucker

Has anyone utilized an external hard drive to facilitate playing a league on both a desktop and a laptop? Does that seem like a reasonable method to do so? I don't know much about external hard drives, but it seems like if the data was stored on one, it would be easy to transport the league back and forth.

Am I missing something? Am I naive? Is there anything else I ought to consider?

It's just that the whole zipping and unzipping the league files, getting those leagues file to the laptop and back, making sure everything gets in the right place seems cumbersome to me.

If anyone has a concise method of making this happen I would love to hear that as well.

Before I went totally laptop I switched back and forth using a USB stick. Worked okay.

Malleus Dei · 08-11-2010, 03:41 PM

I'd like you all to know that I converted over to using only a laptop very easily for a guy my age. It went like this...

My daughter the graphics designer: "Dad, unless you are running a server or doing serious graphics, database or programming work you simply don't need a desktop any more."

Me: But I like to game at really high resolutions!

Her: Dad, laptops routinely display at 1920 x 1080 now, just like your desktop.

Me: But I like a dedicated graphics card with at least a gig of RAM!

Her: Gaming laptops have that now.

Me: But I like to have a fast processor, too!

Her: Dad, you can get them with i5 and i7 processors now.

Me: Really?

Her: Here. Happy birthday. Enjoy your new gaming laptop. After we back up and reformat your old desktop we're donating it to St. Vincent de Paul.

Me: Urk.

OmahaBaseball · 08-11-2010, 04:04 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Malleus Dei

I'd like you all to know that I converted over to using only a laptop very easily for a guy my age. It went like this...

My daughter the graphics designer: "Dad, unless you are running a server or doing serious graphics, database or programming work you simply don't need a desktop any more."

Me: But I like to game at really high resolutions!

Her: Dad, laptops routinely display at 1920 x 1080 now, just like your desktop.

Me: But I like a dedicated graphics card with at least a gig of RAM!

Her: Gaming laptops have that now.

Me: But I like to have a fast processor, too!

Her: Dad, you can get them with i5 and i7 processors now.

Me: Really?

Her: Here. Happy birthday. Enjoy your new gaming laptop. After we back up and reformat your old desktop we're donating it to St. Vincent de Paul.

Me: Urk.

Nice

I finally made the switch to a laptop and am loving it. i7 processor, 6 gig of ram, 1 gig dedicated video card, and 1920 x 1080 resolution is more than enough to play this game. Now we just need to get some netbook support and I will pick up a sweet Asus!

old timer · 08-11-2010, 04:09 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Malleus Dei

Her: Here. Happy birthday. Enjoy your new gaming laptop. After we back up and reformat your old desktop we're donating it to St. Vincent de Paul.

What a cool present! My daughter's only 6 so her presents to me are of the home made variety. Of course, I really love her presents and am in no hurry to get the more expensive variety!

Back on topic... I've used external hard drives to copy leagues back and forth between a laptop and desktop many times, but there is one potential problem you should be aware of. If you're playing a historical league, the path for the stats database may not be in the same location and each time you do the copy and try to play, you'll get an error saying cannot find historical database. If this happens, you'll need to correct the database path each time or you'll get fictional rookies instead of historical rookies when the draft comes around.

Shucker · 08-11-2010, 04:25 PM

Great story Mal. I actually have a very good laptop, 17 inch screen so I am not giving up that much, that will run OOTP very well. You have given me cause to consider switching my OOTP activities directly to it. Old habits die hard I guess. I am used to plopping down at my desk to do it.

I did use the USB a few times in the past, but it seemed like it took so long to zip and move. I am sure I wasn't using the most efficient method of zipping, etc., but it felt cumbersome.

Old Timer, you say you used an external to move the files back and forth, but did you consider using it as the main loacation rather than moving the files? In other words, load and save to the external and simply move the external from device to device. Is that even possible?

That seems like it would be the most efficient method for my current situation. I recognize that external drives are generally slower than internal, but it seems like with this game you load the data and save the data and in between there isn't a lot of hits to the hard drive during the game. I could be wrong, of course, since I have never really paid attention.

Thanks for the responses.

old timer · 08-11-2010, 04:31 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Shucker

Old Timer, you say you used an external to move the files back and forth, but did you consider using it as the main loacation rather than moving the files? In other words, load and save to the external and simply move the external from device to device. Is that even possible?

Yes, you can definitely do that. I didn't do that because I didn't change back and forth between computers every few days or else I would have just left it on the USB drive.

I tested working directly from a USB hard drive (never tested on a flash drive) once and it worked fine. On a moderate sized league without too many years of history, the speed difference wasn't that great.

Edit: I forgot to add that installing your games to the USB hard drive will solve the database path problem if you assign the USB drive the same letter on each computer. I should also add that I haven't tested this on v11 and even though I'm sure I did this before, I'd recommend backing up your league before using the USB drive as your primary drive for both computers - just in case I dreamed this up! Now I think I'll go test this out again so I can be sure, but honestly, I can't think of anything that would be a problem if you make the drive letters match.

Malleus Dei · 08-11-2010, 04:35 PM

My daughter hasn't seen six for decades, and given her salary and given how much I spent on her education (ouch!) she can give me all the expensive presents she wants. Besides, her boss told me later that she got it at a huge discount.

It is very nice though. And it was very nice of her.

Malleus Dei · 08-11-2010, 04:37 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by old timer

I tested working directly from a USB hard drive (never tested on a flash drive) once and it worked fine. On a moderate sized league without too many years of history, the speed difference wasn't that great.

This was my experience as well. There was a performance hit, but it wasn't bad enough to stop doing it.

Dan Kalvoski · 08-11-2010, 06:38 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by old timer

Edit: I forgot to add that installing your games to the USB hard drive will solve the database path problem if you assign the USB drive the same letter on each computer. I should also add that I haven't tested this on v11 and even though I'm sure I did this before, I'd recommend backing up your league before using the USB drive as your primary drive for both computers - just in case I dreamed this up! Now I think I'll go test this out again so I can be sure, but honestly, I can't think of anything that would be a problem if you make the drive letters match.

I don't hop between computers but am running OOTP11 on a hard drive connected via a USB port and it runs fine. In fact, because the C: drive is hurting for space and the USB drive has empty canyons of it, the performance is better on the USB drive than it was on the C: drive.

actionjackson · 08-11-2010, 07:17 PM

One suggestion I have is to download a copy of a freeware home edition program called TeraCopy for each computer you plan on playing the game on. It is light years faster than the default crappy Microsoft copying program thingy. It will make copying much faster. In fact I'm feeling so generous today, I think I'll leave a link for it here. Major Geeks dot com is a fabulous one stop freeware/shareware programs bonanza...Plus they have excellent volunteer techies if your baby (computer, not human) has fallen on hard times. It is a must have site for your bookmarks. Cheers.

EDIT: Must. Read. OPs. Better. Missed the part about the whole league thing. Where's the D'oh smilie when I need it. Oh well this will have to do.

Sorry about that chief. That said the comments about the Major Geeks website stand.

wellsoliver · 08-11-2010, 08:36 PM

I use Dropbox, which is the awesomest service ever. Client automatically syncs up to the server and down to any number of clients all the files, so the stuff is copied automagically.

ihatenames · 08-11-2010, 09:06 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by wellsoliver

I use Dropbox, which is the awesomest service ever. Client automatically syncs up to the server and down to any number of clients all the files, so the stuff is copied automagically.

Wow. I use dropbox all the time. Never thought of using it for OOTP... Fantastic idea.

Shucker · 08-12-2010, 04:09 PM

You may have already guessed that I am not pushing the rim of technological sophistication, so this Dropbox issue has really piqued my interest. It sounds great and I can see the obvious benefits outside of OOTP.

My immediate question is the whole Dropbox folder issue. Do you need to pretty much put all the data (not programs files) you want to use inside of the Dropbox folder almost as if it was a drive itself? For instance, I keep Excel files in a certain place. Do I just move the folder as a sub-folder of Dropbox? That seems a bit cumbersome, but doable.

Now, how about OOTP in particular. Down you have to move the entire league structure under a folder called Dropbox? And would that screw anything up with OOTP and its standard links? I guess it may be as simple as a one time pointing to where the data is and it would know where to put it.

I am really intrigued about this very cool application.

eriqjaffe · 08-12-2010, 04:14 PM

To the end-user, Dropbox creates a folder inside your Documents folder (on "My Documents" on XP) called "My Dropbox". Just put things in there as if it were any other folder, and Dropbox takes care of syncing it.

My favorite thing about Dropbox is that it's cross-platform - Windows, Mac and Linux.

One thing to bear in mind is that Dropbox only gives you 2GB of free space (although you can get more from referrals), but you can pay for more.

08-11-2010, 02:25 PM	#1
Shucker Minors (Double A) Join Date: Mar 2002 Posts: 188	OOTP and External Hard Drives Has anyone utilized an external hard drive to facilitate playing a league on both a desktop and a laptop? Does that seem like a reasonable method to do so? I don't know much about external hard drives, but it seems like if the data was stored on one, it would be easy to transport the league back and forth. Am I missing something? Am I naive? Is there anything else I ought to consider? It's just that the whole zipping and unzipping the league files, getting those leagues file to the laptop and back, making sure everything gets in the right place seems cumbersome to me. If anyone has a concise method of making this happen I would love to hear that as well.

08-11-2010, 07:17 PM	#11
actionjackson Hall Of Famer Join Date: Apr 2009 Location: Toronto, ON Posts: 6,181	One suggestion I have is to download a copy of a freeware home edition program called TeraCopy for each computer you plan on playing the game on. It is light years faster than the default crappy Microsoft copying program thingy. It will make copying much faster. In fact I'm feeling so generous today, I think I'll leave a link for it here. Major Geeks dot com is a fabulous one stop freeware/shareware programs bonanza...Plus they have excellent volunteer techies if your baby (computer, not human) has fallen on hard times. It is a must have site for your bookmarks. Cheers. EDIT: Must. Read. OPs. Better. Missed the part about the whole league thing. Where's the D'oh smilie when I need it. Oh well this will have to do. Sorry about that chief. That said the comments about the Major Geeks website stand. Last edited by actionjackson; 08-12-2010 at 12:19 AM.

08-12-2010, 04:14 PM	#15
eriqjaffe Hall Of Famer Join Date: May 2003 Location: Under The Christmas Fish Posts: 7,729	To the end-user, Dropbox creates a folder inside your Documents folder (on "My Documents" on XP) called "My Dropbox". Just put things in there as if it were any other folder, and Dropbox takes care of syncing it. My favorite thing about Dropbox is that it's cross-platform - Windows, Mac and Linux. One thing to bear in mind is that Dropbox only gives you 2GB of free space (although you can get more from referrals), but you can pay for more. __________________

08-11-2010, 04:25 PM	#6
Shucker Minors (Double A) Join Date: Mar 2002 Posts: 188	Great story Mal. I actually have a very good laptop, 17 inch screen so I am not giving up that much, that will run OOTP very well. You have given me cause to consider switching my OOTP activities directly to it. Old habits die hard I guess. I am used to plopping down at my desk to do it. I did use the USB a few times in the past, but it seemed like it took so long to zip and move. I am sure I wasn't using the most efficient method of zipping, etc., but it felt cumbersome. Old Timer, you say you used an external to move the files back and forth, but did you consider using it as the main loacation rather than moving the files? In other words, load and save to the external and simply move the external from device to device. Is that even possible? That seems like it would be the most efficient method for my current situation. I recognize that external drives are generally slower than internal, but it seems like with this game you load the data and save the data and in between there isn't a lot of hits to the hard drive during the game. I could be wrong, of course, since I have never really paid attention. Thanks for the responses.

08-11-2010, 08:36 PM	#12
wellsoliver Major Leagues Join Date: Aug 2009 Location: San Diego, CA Posts: 337	I use Dropbox, which is the awesomest service ever. Client automatically syncs up to the server and down to any number of clients all the files, so the stuff is copied automagically.

08-12-2010, 04:09 PM	#14
Shucker Minors (Double A) Join Date: Mar 2002 Posts: 188	You may have already guessed that I am not pushing the rim of technological sophistication, so this Dropbox issue has really piqued my interest. It sounds great and I can see the obvious benefits outside of OOTP. My immediate question is the whole Dropbox folder issue. Do you need to pretty much put all the data (not programs files) you want to use inside of the Dropbox folder almost as if it was a drive itself? For instance, I keep Excel files in a certain place. Do I just move the folder as a sub-folder of Dropbox? That seems a bit cumbersome, but doable. Now, how about OOTP in particular. Down you have to move the entire league structure under a folder called Dropbox? And would that screw anything up with OOTP and its standard links? I guess it may be as simple as a one time pointing to where the data is and it would know where to put it. I am really intrigued about this very cool application.