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howardm1610
howardm1610
Participant
May 11, 2016
Answered

Running CC from an external hard drive

  • May 11, 2016
  • 2 replies
  • 39141 views

My Mac is struggling to run CC, as it only has 8gb of RAM and cannot be upgraded – it's an iMac (Retina 4K, 21.5-inch, Late 2015), 3.1 GHz Intel Core i5, 8 GB 1867 MHz DDR3. I have heard it is possible to install and run Adobe CC from a partitioned external hard drive, to free up pressure on the internal hard drive. Is this possible, and, if so, how do I go about it? Layman's answers preferable as I'm not that techy – as is evidence by the fact I didn't realise you couldn't upgrade RAM in new iMacs after purchase! Any help greatly appreciated, thanks.

    Correct answer Ned Murphy

    The core of CC, namely the desktop application must be installed on the primary drive of the machine.  Beyond that you can specify an alternate location for the applications to be installed.

    To change Install Location for Applications

    With the CC application opened, choose the little gear icon in the upper right corner and then choose Preferences.  In the Preferences screen select Creative Cloud and then look for the Install Location drop down

    2 replies

    M
    MichelleDiamond
    Known Participant
    November 12, 2016

    i am butting in here.. i am running a 2012 3.2Ghz iMac at lightning speed - well almost. Absolutely no problem. My internals drive is however kept to a minimum. I have 750GB free of 1TB. I do have 24GB RAM but it made very little difference to the performance as far as processing goes.

    May I suggest you move all work files onto an external and make sure your boot drive is as free as possible so the system can run around with glee. Systems like wide open spaces

      H
      haydeni52183593
      Participant
      January 26, 2018

      haha i would but it is all window files that it "needs"

      Ned Murphy
      Ned MurphyCorrect answer
      Legend
      May 11, 2016

      The core of CC, namely the desktop application must be installed on the primary drive of the machine.  Beyond that you can specify an alternate location for the applications to be installed.

      To change Install Location for Applications

      With the CC application opened, choose the little gear icon in the upper right corner and then choose Preferences.  In the Preferences screen select Creative Cloud and then look for the Install Location drop down

        W
        Wanger2112
        Participant
        August 22, 2016

        I changed the install location to a separate hard drive (G:) for both the app installation and Adobe files, but Creative Cloud keeps trying to install Photoshop on my C: drive.  (Which is a SSD without enough space.)  Is this a common problem?  I've already uninstalled Creative Cloud twice, restarted my PC a bunch of times.  I'm out of ideas...

          John T Smith
          Community Expert
          John T SmithCommunity Expert
          Community Expert
          August 22, 2016

          I could be wrong, but my understanding is that no Adobe program will install to an external drive that may be disconnected, since doing so would REALLY mess up the program registration system

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