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Field Researcher
Original Poster
#1 Old 3rd Apr 2018 at 1:06 AM

This user has the following games installed:

Sims 3, World Adventures, Ambitions, Late Night, Generations, Pets, Showtime, Supernatural, Seasons, University Life, Island Paradise, Into the Future
Default Do Placing "Sims" Folders Across Drives In File Junctions/Symbolic Links Cause Lag?
Good evening.

I am writing concerning my game slowing to a crawl, and I think I am onto what the matter is, but I seek some advice.

I run a PC with multiple hard drives. My base (C:/) drive has the most room, but I moved the My Documents folder (and the other My X folders) onto one of my USB-to-IDE external hard drives (I:/). My computer recognizes My Documents (etc.) as existing on the I-drive and writes all My Documents content there, as it has done for years. This includes all "Sims III" databases, saved files, Mods, etc. etc., and has never caused a problem.

However, fearing a limited space on my I-drive, I decided to order my game to write content elsewhere, to my C-drive. As the "Sims III" game is hard coded to wirte to the My Documents Folder, I instead created a Junction Folder.

This is how a Junction Folder works.

This is my explanation of the above:
1. I move the S3 content onto my C-drive and out of My Documents.
2. I order a Junction Folder with an identical name to the original I-drive's My Documents folder that is housing "Sims III" content
3. Clicking the Junction from My Documents opens it as if the Junction was still in My Documents, thus tricking the PC into thinking content is there when it is a ctually written to the C-drive

In other words, both the My Documents path and the C-drive path are recognized as valid on the computer. Opening the My Documents source makes the PC think it's I:/X/My Documents/EA/Sims, but the actual source is C:/whatever .

Here's the rub: I fear that this arrangement is grossly slowing down my computer. "Sims III" itself is installed on the C-drive, but My Documents is on the I-drive. Before I tried the Junction Folder, when "Sims III" loaded up, it automatically recognized the "Sims" program in C and the My Documents date in I. With the Junction, the PC has to constantly jump from the I to the C to read and write all My Documents data, because the PC looks in the I-drive, opens the Junction Folder, and then reads and writes to the C drive's target. Simply put, this creates an extra step that requires my computer to constantly jump forwards and back every few minutes.

I've noticed significant problems in games I've played for more than a few RL days. Sims won't follow orders to speak to other Sims without standing there for about twenty in-game minutes.The clock will freeze at, say, 10:53 PM and won't change until it jerks forward to 11:13 PM, meaning the game had lagged that long. I also get the occasional crash from overloading the RAM (the same issue that generates Error Twelve when saving), but Error Twelve itself does not fire, as I can save perfectly.

I have never experienced lag like this before, and I did not experience lag like this before I created the Junction Folder. Moving everything back onto the I-drive is time intensive, as there is that many files . I can selectively keep some files in the Junction (particularly the files that are only loaded once or are written manually, like Saved Games and such), but before I make that decision, I would value the input of men more experienced then me.

In your opinion, could a Junction Folder that sends the game looking across entirely separate hard drives cause this delay? If not, what is causing the issue? Nothing like this happened before the Junction Folder was introduced.

Thank you for any assistance you may render.

Warm regards,
-TURTLESHROOM

P.S.: Is there some way to edit the Registry or something to make "Sims III" write its data outside of My Documents?


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Jesus loves you and died for you!

Your resident prude! A pox on all who remove the "censor blurs" on showering (etc.) Sims!
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Field Researcher
Original Poster
#3 Old 4th Apr 2018 at 3:01 AM
What do you mean by the speed of my drives?

-------

Jesus loves you and died for you!

Your resident prude! A pox on all who remove the "censor blurs" on showering (etc.) Sims!
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