Move applications

[askywalker]

Can I just drag apps from one drive to another and they will still work? How reliable is this?

I tried moving an app to my external drive (the 160gb on this new MBP sure filled up quickly) - when I run it from the external drive it has a window: 'Application Has Moved' and allows me to 'Repair Now'. The app runs fine after repair, but the next time I run it it keeps popping up with the same window. I am thinking I will have to reinstall - but I thought that Mac's were capable of this? Maybe just certain apps?

 

[mad jew]

It should work for most apps. Which app gave you that error? Apps that come with installers and Apple apps should probably be left where they are though. Often an Apple app will not update via Software Update if it is not in the original Applications folder.

 

[crazycat]

I think you should keep you applications on your laptop and move the large files to an external hard drive. Moving applications is never a good idea, i had a problem with VMWare, iWork and one other app that i dont remember.

 

[askywalker]

Thanks for setting me straight - I had thought moving apps was ok. I have the Photoshop suite - and barely ever use a few of the apps on the suite - and this 160gb drive is really cramping my style...

Anyone know if a fw800 or esata connected 7200 rpm drive should be faster than the internal 5400 rpm drive? Or is the internal going to be faster because it is the primary drive or something?

 

[mad jew]

The external will technically be faster but it's still running your system, so the 5400RPM speed could be a bit of a bottle neck. It's not really a problem though.

I agree that it's better to put other data and files on the external rather than apps. However, I still stand by the fact you can move most apps in OSX and still have them run correctly. Just avoid the installer-based apps and the system apps and you'll be fine. Nevertheless, apps aren't generally very large so moving them from your space-starved internal drive is rarely all that useful.

 

[Eidorian]

I have quite a few OS X applications running from a NFS shard on our Solaris machine. It's a lot nicer to just share out and update one repository of applications instead of having to go out an upgrade them.

I haven't mastered Radmind, yet.

There are still some applications that just won't work from any other location then on the local drive though.