Software

[Murph]

Can I load a program to an external drive?

[XL]

Generally yes, unless the program has some requirement it needs to be on a certain drive (eg.  licensing issues).

To clarify, are you loading the program onto an external drive to "install" on multiple machines or to "execute" from it?

Note, USB 2 transfer speeds will be very slow.  You will not likely want large programs to run externally.  Small programs should be fine.

Some programs come with multiple licenses that allow for installation on more than one machine (many Norton products are sold with 3 licenses at Future Shop).

[Murph · Accepted solution]

I would like to load the program onto an external drive to run from it?  The program in question is Adobe Photoshop 9 and Adobe Premiere Elements 9.  I purchased the bundle from Futureshop in late December and am finding it quite slow to open. 

Is it possible to run this software from an external drive?

[XL]

For starters, running either of these programs from an external drive will be a BIG mistake for performance.  USB 2 is not ideal for this situation.

It's hard for me to give advice over the forum on your situation.  There could be many issues that could impact performance.  Especially for Premiere rendering HD files

• do you have enough free space for Premiere to swap data?
• have you defrag your hard drive?
• what processor are you using?  how much RAM do you have?
• can you run your virus program in "silent" mode to maximize performance?

If you search on the internet, there are specific Adobe forums that can get better into detail about your performance situation.

[Snapshot]

I also bought that bundle and loaded it directly on to my internal hard drive, never an external...especially premier. Anything video is going to need the fastest transfer so there is no lag or lost data due to poor transfer speed. I think there's only one license too which is a bit of a bummer because I would have liked a copy on both my Mac and PC.

Another great program is Corel X3, I have it on my PC.