Sims 3 on the C Drive, Sims 4 on the D drive

[PollyannaSims]

Hi Guys,
I hope it is okay me starting a new topic for this - I have looked for an answer in the forums but can't find anything.
I have just bought a gaming laptop and it has a 256bg SSD and a 1tb HDD. I have installed Origin and the Sims 3 onto my SSD and attempted to install Sims 4 on the HDD to save room on my main drive.  I installed the Sims 4 on the HDD by creating a "Games" folder on my D Drive (the HDD) and instructing origin to install to that folder. I think it worked (I could open the game) but I now have some folders on my D drive and some on my C drive in the Electronic Art folder that was created when I downloaded the Sims 3.

The D Drive



The C Drive


My questions are a) has my install on the D drive actually worked?
b) Can I move all the Sims 4 files to the D Drive? I am a bit of a computer noobie so it would need to be either simple or broken down really small.
c) If I can't have all my Sims 4 files on my D drive, is there way to move my Mods and/or Saves folder so I am not using too much space on my C Drive.

Thank you so much for patiently reading all my questions. I know this is my first post but I swear I have been reading and lurking since Pam got me hooked on the Dreamweavers!

[HelenP]

Hi @PollyannaSims, welcome to active forum life .

a) The files on the D drive are the main game files and look fine.  If the game runs then all is good.

b & c) The short answer is no, sorry. The files on the C drive hold the working data on the families and neighbourhoods that you have been playing. The game will always look for them there so if you move them it will re-create all the files and folders as if the game was newly installed.  If you move the Mods folder the game will create a new empty copy and run with no mods.

If you want to back them up, copy them to a different location.  You want to backup Saves (at least), Mods (if you have any), Screenshots, Tray (holds lots and houses you've made and any downloaded from gallery/web), Recorded Videos I think holds any in game vids you have shot so back that up as well if you need to.

In the folder on the C drive you will see a file called 'localthumbcache.package'.  Delete this regularly to prevent glitches and crashes. I know Playalot deletes this file after every gaming session to prevent problems. I delete it when I remember.

Hope this answers your questions, have fun gaming.

[Flynn Arrowstarr]

b) Can I move all the Sims 4 files to the D Drive? I am a bit of a computer noobie so it would need to be either simple or broken down really small.
c) If I can't have all my Sims 4 files on my D drive, is there way to move my Mods and/or Saves folder so I am not using too much space on my C Drive.

Hi, @PollyannaSims.

For b &c the short answer is no, but the longer answer is "yes, but..." You'll want to follow the steps in this article from How To Geek to at minimum move you Documents folder to the D: drive. Moving both Documents and Downloads to the hard drive will help save a lot of space on the SSD as those are the two most often used folders in nearly any computer user's profile.

Hope this helps and happy Simming

Flynn

[HelenP]

Thank you so much @Flynn Arrowstarr, I never knew that and now I also have loads more space on my C drive.

[PollyannaSims]

Thank you so much!  I was so worried I hadn't installed it correctly. I have decided to leave My Docs where it is because I want the Sims 3 running from there and there is still 150 GB on my SSD for now. If it gets too out of control I may rethink