Is it okay if you run software off of an external hard drive?

[LuisRM]

With purchased Adobe products I know that it's best practice to install the software on your internal hard drive due to various registry files. I'm running low on hard drive space and wanted to know if these cloud apps would run with less problems than before off of an external 2.0 usb hard drive? I'm on Windows 7. Thanks!

[Jeff A Wright · Accepted solution]

You can customize the install location to utilize your external hard drive.  There will still be shared resources installed on your primary Windows drive however.  Is there anything else which can be removed from your internal hard drive besides trying to customize the install location?

[LuisRM]

Yes, I have CS5.5 Design Premium installed which I could remove completely along with InDesign CS4. On a related note, to deactive the software before I install the Cloud programs are these the correct steps?

1. Make sure the computer that has the software installed is connected to the Internet.
2. Choose Help > Deactivate in the product you wish to deactivate.  If you have a suite then choosing one of the products will Deactivate the entire suite.
3. Select Deactivate Permanently

If I choose Deactivate Permanently can I reinstall at a later date? Also, do I uninstall the software with the Add/Remove built into Windows 7? Should I then run the Adobe Creative Suite Cleaner Tool before I sign up for Adobe Cloud?

Thanks again, I appreciate the help, I just want to do this all correctly.

[Jeff A Wright]

The steps you listed for deactivating are correct LuisRM.  As a rule of thumb I typically use external drives to store things like documents, pictures, videos, and backups.  I try to typically have the applications I use installed internally.  You should be ok with customizing the location but do keep in mind that your external hard drive will need to be connected whenever you want to use the applications.

[jwarren891]

Thanks for the email, Jeff.

I spent an hour on the phone with Support this afternoon and asked the question every way I could think of, and the answer was ALWAYS that Creative Cloud applications MUST reside on C:. Perhaps the App Manager, on initial start, could point this out - I'm sure I'm not alone. And, the UI for it is very muted. I didn't even SEE the Preferences dropdown at first.