reduce hd usage requirements???

[imported_TheDragon]

there are many files I never use
(sever_.zips, etc, many maps, etc)

qustion - can these be deleted? or moved it a a separate drive if ever needed?

also thinking of buying a new faster HD
can I move the Bf2 tree?
will I need to edit the registry?
or should I uninsall and re-install

[lil_jimmy_norton]

Re: reduce hd usage requirements???

there are many files I never use
(sever_.zips, etc, many maps, etc)

qustion - can these be deleted? or moved it a a separate drive if ever needed? Probably not a good idea

also thinking of buying a new faster HD That would probably be a good idea.
can I move the Bf2 tree? Yes
will I need to edit the registry? If you do the above, yes.
or should I uninsall and re-install That would be much eaiser.

[jdrou]

Re: reduce hd usage requirements???

If you never play certain maps you can certainly move the whole folder for that map elsewhere. Other than that you pretty much need all the files that BF2 installs. You can run BF2 from a driver/folder other than the one it was installed to with no problems. The only time you might have an issue is when you need to patch it; the default path will be the install location so you would need to point the patch to the actual location (if it allows it). Uninstalling later would also not work right unless you put the folder back to its old location first.

[Revoluti0n]

Re: reduce hd usage requirements???

I can guarantee you that you wont see a noticeable diffrence in-game with a faster hard drive. It's not like buying a faster videocard or a faster processor.
Deleting anything in the BF2 folder is asking for a reinstllation.

Reinstallation of BF2 would be:
1-More efficient for you and faster
2-Less chance for the game to sh!t the bed
3-Guarantee you a correct and fresh installation and might be less buggy

[lil_jimmy_norton]

Re: reduce hd usage requirements???

I can guarantee you that you wont see a noticeable diffrence in-game with a faster hard drive.

How do you know what he's using? If he's on an older 5400RPM 2MB cache HD, he will most certainly see a load time improvment going to a 7200RPM 16MB cache HD.

[bitvomit]

Re: reduce hd usage requirements???

You can probably install BF2 to a flash drive or run your windows on a RAID 0 setup with two hard drives to improve loading times. I'm not sure if it would work but it's something I've thought about before.

[FPS[VT_NERD]]

Re: reduce hd usage requirements???

Running a RAID 0 might help, but if he wants to improve loading times I would recommend buying RAM (unless he already has 2GB or more) instead of getting a 2nd hard drive and setting up a RAID 0.

[lil_jimmy_norton]

Re: reduce hd usage requirements???

Flash drive wouldn't help a whole lot, USB 2.0 max transfer speed is 480Mb/s with is 60MB/s. Slower than a good and speedy HD would run it. Only thing it would improve is seek and acess time, which wouldn't make up for the slow transfer.

As for RAID0 it doesn't make that much of a diffrence.

[sknight]

Re: reduce hd usage requirements???

Flash drive wouldn't help a whole lot, USB 2.0 max transfer speed is 480Mb/s with is 60MB/s. Slower than a good and speedy HD would run it. Only thing it would improve is seek and acess time, which wouldn't make up for the slow transfer.

As for RAID0 it doesn't make that much of a diffrence.

Plus buying a 2GB+ flash drive is expensive compared to a real hard drive like the one in my sig (100 bucks)

[jdrou]

Re: reduce hd usage requirements???

How do you know what he's using? If he's on an older 5400RPM 2MB cache HD, he will most certainly see a load time improvment going to a 7200RPM 16MB cache HD.

I wouldn't guarantee a significant improvement even in that case. I'm using a 5400rpm notebook drive (i.e. slower than a 5400rpm desktop drive) and I have no problem with load times since I upgraded to 1.5 GB RAM. RAM amount is far more important than disk speed in level load times.

[lil_jimmy_norton]

Re: reduce hd usage requirements???

I wouldn't guarantee a significant improvement even in that case. I'm using a 5400rpm notebook drive (i.e. slower than a 5400rpm desktop drive) and I have no problem with load times since I upgraded to 1.5 GB RAM. RAM amount is far more important than disk speed in level load times.

Yes RAM is more important, but disk speed is very revelant. Revoluti0n said "I can guarantee you that you wont see a noticeable diffrence in-game with a faster hard drive." Which is incorrect, he will see a noticable diffrence. I didn't say huge, just noticible.

[RocketChild]

Re: reduce hd usage requirements???

More RAM will always help with keeping BF from paging to the disk. A faster HDD will help some with load times, but not overall ingame performance. If your system BIOS allows for some level of OCing, you might want to also look at tuning your box up some.

And Lil_Jimmy, I love what you have your eVGA OCed too, 717...nice.

[wizard46]

Re: reduce hd usage requirements???

uses alcohol and damon tools to make disk image get rid of your movie files the game will load a lot faster you will be surprised

[jdrou]

Re: reduce hd usage requirements???

uses alcohol and damon tools to make disk image get rid of your movie files the game will load a lot faster you will be surprised

Those may improve the initial startup of the game but not level-loading times which are far more important.

[imported_TheDragon]

Re: reduce hd usage requirements???

thanks to all for sound suggestions
fyi
I have 4gb of ram and (3) 200GB 7200 rpm HD
yes - the extra 2GB really did help
now load same speed as other clan guys that have raid 0
this is validated over months of play
only slight better in game than with 2gb
hmm
now if Igot raid as well !
p4 3.2 and ATI x1800xl
run all settings on high
1600x1200
but AA off and shadows off

was thinking of getting some form of ram disk
be neat to load whole thing into ram
but bf2 is nearly 4gb - so - that is why I wanted to trim some folders

uses alcohol and damon tools to make disk image get rid of your movie files the game will load a lot faster you will be surprised

hmm
the disc image is only used to verify CD installed = nothing else - right???
been doing that for years