Moving hard drives (not genos)

[usonian]

I have a question for all our computer tech afficianados out there: 

Are there any issues I may run into moving WoW from one hard drive to another?  I'm doing a bit of computer maintenance tonight by adding some RAM, a new hard drive, and doing some cleanup.  I was going to move everything from the main hard drive to the new one since it will be considerably larger and just leave the main for the operating system.  Just want to make sure this isn't going to mess with any WoW updates or performance.

While I'm at it, a quick question about RAM.  I'm running a Pentium D830 3GHz Dual Core with 2 sticks of 512Mb DDR PC2 5300 / 667MHz RAM right now and I have two more slots.  I've never upgraded RAM on a Dual Core system before but I remember something about having to run the RAM in identical pairs to keep the DC functionality.  Will putting 2x 1Gb sticks in the open slots work as 'pairing' or do they ALL need to be the same speed (all 512mb or all 1Gb etc)?

Thanks!

-uso

[Genoism]

if by moving wow u mean just copy pasting the folder then no it wont work because the windows registry files point to the original location. So your pretty much stuck with having to reinstall it on the harddrive you want.

As for the ram, i tried running mismatching ram sticks that had slightly different timings but both 1gig and dif brands. Let me say - wow did not like it at all. It gave me bsod's depite the rest of the system running seemingly perfect. If you're going to replace/add ram then make sure they're all exactly the same, i myself even went so far as to make sure they were the same brand.

[usonian]

Thanks for the input Geno.  I was originally just going to copy/paste so I'm glad I asked.  Isn't there another way to move information between drives that will maintain the integrity of any registry files?  I really, really, really don't want to reinstall WoW so I guess I could live with keeping it on the main drive if I have to.

I've heard about problems with mismatching RAM sticks but every spec about the new 1Gb ones match the sticks in my computer now, they're just faster.  Anyone else have experience with upgrading RAM on Dual Core systems?

[Arcdelad]

my computer is a dual core AMD, not intel, and it came stock with 2 x 512 like you..im running PC5300 DDR2 ram (forget bus speed, but i think 833)...i bought two one gig sticks of PNY PC5300 DDR2 ram and it worked out perfectly...zero issues...later i replaced the two original sticks of ram with 1G Kingston PC5300 DDR2 ram and i still had zero issues...

[Nixphire]

You might try copying the folder to your new drive. Then try running a reinstall to the new drive. It (might) be faster doing it that way. I believe there are some download folders for patches in your current install that you could probably copy over to the new install of WoW and be able to update a hellava lot faster being the content is already downloaded.
Best bet with ram is to test it out. Some times there are issues, some times there are not. The ram slots should be color coded. Make sure that you have matching RAMs in the same color (or at least I think it should be the same color, if that doesn't work, swap it to be same pairing) to prevent any kind of issue. That way the two slots match speed and there's less of an issue.

[Genoism]

You might try copying the folder to your new drive. Then try running a reinstall to the new drive. It (might) be faster doing it that way. I believe there are some download folders for patches in your current install that you could probably copy over to the new install of WoW and be able to update a hellava lot faster being the content is already downloaded.
Best bet with ram is to test it out. Some times there are issues, some times there are not. The ram slots should be color coded. Make sure that you have matching RAMs in the same color (or at least I think it should be the same color, if that doesn't work, swap it to be same pairing) to prevent any kind of issue. That way the two slots match speed and there's less of an issue.

i'd argue that lol, blizz has one giant patch on their site(fileplanet might as well) where you could just upgrade it in one fell swoop rather then patching it dozens of patches.

[fiere redfern]

A bit of input from someone who's boyfriend is a bit of a technophile (and by a bit, I mean his room is FULL of cannibalized hardware)...

different RAM sticks do not play well with one another - much like geno's experience, they won't run pretty. At all. When buying RAM (and I'm assuming this is what you did, given the specs on the sticks are the same) it's best to buy two of the same kind and use those. Capacity is the last thing you want to worry about - iirc, one stick of 512Mg and one of 1G RAM will play nice - as long as the specs are the same (bus speed, etc.)

As for the other, one thing you -should- be able to do to make the install a bit less of a headache is copy your WTF, Cache, and Interface folders over directly. That way you don't have to reset every little thing once you get in-game.  And though I don't know if it'll work (so no biting off of the head if it doesn't!) you -may- be able to do the same with the update files that are stored in the main WoW folder. Again, don't quote me on that, I could be wrong.

[Genoism]

As for the other, one thing you -should- be able to do to make the install a bit less of a headache is copy your WTF, Cache, and Interface folders over directly. That way you don't have to reset every little thing once you get in-game.  And though I don't know if it'll work (so no biting off of the head if it doesn't!) you -may- be able to do the same with the update files that are stored in the main WoW folder. Again, don't quote me on that, I could be wrong.

oh ya u can definately salvage those folders, it'll save you a ton of time.

[KittyPurple]

I'm currently running mismatched ram very nicely. the key is you need the speed of your ram to match. as long as they are the same speed they *should* work together. the thing about pair up ram is that if they are identical, the computer can use both simultaneously, but minor speed gain is not enough to make up the difference  in performance versus more ram. that why when i had .5GB i bought a 1GB for the second slot instead of another .5

as for the hard drive issue, you'll need to reinstall wow, but what you can do is keep all the patches you've already downloaded and skip the download again.

[usonian]

The RAM setup was successful last night with this configuration:

2x 512MB DDR2 PC2 5300 / 667MHz
2x 1Gb DDR2 PC2 5300 / 667MHz

All 3Gb were recognized and ran fine through an entire Karazhan raid, although I think they increased my aggro generation:)  Didn't get the hard drive installed since I was rushing to get in the raid, but I've decided to just leave WoW on the main drive and move everything else.  Thanks for all the help!

-uso