World of Warcraft hard drive by Transcend
by Mike Schramm 
Dec 3rd 2008 at 2:00PM
But a company called Transcend was way ahead of me. In Asia, they're selling a hard drive preloaded with a working Wrath installation on it. So all you need to do to play Warcraft on any computer with a USB hookup is plug in and run. You'd likely have to adjust the graphics settings depending on which computer you plugged into, but it's a great idea. Available sizes run from 160gb to 500gb, so I'd assume as well that you can use the rest of the drive as normal.
It looks official as well, but you never know -- it could be the The9, the company that runs Warcraft in Asia, has approved it, or Transcend could just be doing this on their own. Either way, this wouldn't be too hard to make yourself here in the states -- buy an HD, install WoW, and there you go.
Filed under: Analysis / Opinion, Blizzard, Wrath of the Lich King, Hardware
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 4)
andyjay220 Dec 3rd 2008 2:08PM
I have been having performance issues ever since Wrath launched. I have a super ridiculously high end gaming rig and still hitch a lot while flying, in Dalaran, or even porting to Org.
What's worse, tabbing out (from full screen mode or even windowed mode) is really slow. Even turning down the graphics doesn't help, which is ridiculous anyway because my computer can MORE than handle WoW.
Maybe Blizz just needs to do some optimizing?
Nick S Dec 3rd 2008 2:11PM
I have a middle-of-the-line gaming PC, and Wrath hasn't been any problem, hardware-wise. It's a resource hog, yeah, but it still ticks along at a steady 45 fps in all but the most wild AoE encounters.
You may want to look into downloading the latest drivers for your video card and motherboard; it sounds like something strange is going on between WoW and your machine.
Abremm Dec 4th 2008 10:50AM
yeah man, that sounds more like a problem on your end. check your drivers. my PC is far from high end, while i've upgraded my GPU, the mobo, CPU and RAM are all about 4 years old. and i still pull down 35 fps consistantly with no signifigant problems with loading or alt-tabbing.
ps. if your alt tabbing alot, just run your game in windowed mode with "Maximize" checked. it'll look just like its normal fullscren, but you can get at your taskbar and everything else really easy.
Bloodletter Dec 3rd 2008 2:07PM
Does the hard disk come with in-built Keyloggers? WTB tbh.
William Sagemire Dec 3rd 2008 2:27PM
The question is, when you take this to your friend's house or some other computer away from home, is that computer going to be free of keyloggers and viruses?
Joshua Smellie Dec 3rd 2008 9:04PM
All this is is an external HDD with WoW installed. Nothing else should be on it AND in the case that it is filled with viruses and/or keyloggers then your current virus/spyware protection should pick it up.
As far as I'm concerned, if you're prepared to not have protected then you're prepared to lose your WoW account, e-mail accounts, credit card details and any other personal information you have on your computer.
You take the risk.
durendul Dec 3rd 2008 2:09PM
the biggest drawback i could see is very very long loading times a usb connection will be much slower then simply loading it off your hd
FlameFlash Dec 3rd 2008 2:47PM
With USB 2.0 I really haven't noticed much of a difference at all. In fact, it balances out to counter some of the lag because by the time the comp loads from the external the cities especially have already loaded a bit more.
FlameFlash Dec 3rd 2008 3:02PM
Yeah... already do that myself given how often Windows likes to up and die...
Almost all my stuff is on the external at this point actually. Glad it's all backed up on a second HD that isn't used as much.
Nick S Dec 3rd 2008 2:09PM
Cool idea, I guess, but I run WoW (and numerous addons) off a fast internal HDD, so I'm guessing it'd be a pretty big slowdown.
Pausanius Dec 3rd 2008 3:04PM
I'm not certain how prevalent they are yet, but I currently run WoW off an external HDD using an eSATA connection :)
While not all towers have them yet, they're starting to be included on more laptops nowadays. Maybe something from Transcend to think about for Warcraft HDD v2.0
isma Dec 3rd 2008 2:11PM
Or if you already have WoW installed, just Copy it into the HD.
BTW, running on USB 2.0 external HD shows slugginess only on the loading screen. Everything runs pretty much the same.
fig Dec 3rd 2008 2:13PM
when usb 3.0 rolls around ye maybe but till than the transfer speeds are just to slow.
Runstadrey Dec 3rd 2008 2:12PM
Is it really true that WoW doesn't have any entries in the registry?
Rihlsul Dec 3rd 2008 2:16PM
Really. Makes it crazy easy to copy around a home network. I have wow on 3 machines, have rebuilt 2 of them a couple times each. I haven't installed WoW and each expansion more than once. After the first, it's just copy copy copy.
Blackhorn Dec 3rd 2008 2:26PM
Things are changing and it depends on your OS.
If you're on Vista, for example, patches are no longer downloaded to your WoW install directory, but to a public Blizzard folder. Then when you run the updater, it checks your registry to find out where you WoW is located. That registry link can be broken depending on how you copy or move your WoW. If you just copy your WoW folder from A to B... the updater will continue to try to patch A until you resolve the issue by hand.
Amaxe Dec 3rd 2008 4:17PM
Yes. I had my WoW on the C: drive under Programs until 3.0.2 and the upgrade suggested I move it. I had to delete the old folders in Programs and reinstall my addons to make it work.
No further problems though
evestraw Dec 4th 2008 3:27AM
wow has registry key for the autoupdater
and it gets set if you run in in admin mode
Todd Dec 3rd 2008 2:13PM
In Asia, you say? ...and how much spyware and keylogging software is also loaded on this hard drive?
Tumleren Dec 3rd 2008 2:53PM
Yes, because we all know all hardware from Asia is loaded with keyloggers.
Oh hey, did i mention that almost all of the parts in your computer has been fabricated in Asia? Including the harddrive?
Yea, really. Get over the fact that it's asian - Are you saying that it wouldn't have a keylogger if it had been produced in, say, Germany? And that if it's made in Asia it will definitely have a keylogger?
Generalizing is always the best way to prove yourself stupid