Running CC from an external hard drive

[howardm1610]

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.

[Ned Murphy · Accepted solution]

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

[Wanger2112]

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]

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

[MichelleDiamond]

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

[haydeni52183593]

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

[Loramissouri]

I am in need of CC and Adobe INDesign, I have a laptop with only 4 gig memory and it is NOT able to upgrade, can I download CC on to an external HD and run the program that way?

[kglad]

you need, at least, 10 gb of open space on your os system drive, in addition, to lots of free space on installation drive.  ie, the cc desktop app needs to be installed on your os system drive.  the apps (eg, indesgin) can be installed elsewhere, but each of them also adds some files to your os system drive.

you have enough ram for the cc desktop app, but not enough for indesign or (probably) any other cc app.

[Lumigraphics]

Your problems have nothing to do with where CC is installed. Your computer doesn't mean the minimum specs to run these applications.

RAM is working space, hard drive is storage. They are NOT the same. You don't have enough RAM, you need to install more or buy a newer computer.

[Test Screen Name]

No. You need at least 8GB of memory. That is RAM. Bare minimum. Some apps need more. Adding more disks is not going to add more RAM. Creative Cloud is a high end app, not suitable for entry level machines.