Installation directory

[tareqahmed.ta]

Hello,

I have a student license for 3DS Max 2014, but when I install the program, it wants to install in on my C: drive. The problem is that I only have 4GB left on it; 60Gb SSD, the majority of space has been taken up by Windows updates. Everytime I  change the directory, it keeps telling me that it still wants to install 8GB on to my SSD. This is frustrating me, I've got a 500GB and a 2TB harddrives that have plenty of space, is there a way to stop 3DS Max from installing onto my C drive?

Thank you

[dgorsman]

You can try unpackaging the installer to your non-system drive.  By default, the installer unpackages itself into the system drive, and requires a fair amount of space to install critical program components regardless of the install method.  Data can usually be located elsewhere, but if the installer doesn't provide an option for that then there *must* be enough room on the drive for a proper install first.

You should take some time and clean up that drive; that small amount of free space can come back to bite you later.  Longer term, seriously consider getting a larger drive to use as your system drive.  These days 60 GB isn't good for much more than a front-desk computer.

[tareqahmed.ta]

Unpackage what? The installer or the AutoDownloadManagerSetup? The installer keeps telling me that it needs the 8GB space on my SSD while installing 2GB on a seprate harddrive. The AutoDownloadManagerSetup doesn't do anything. I just don't see a reason why it insist on installing the bulk of the program on my C drive, and there shouldn't be a reason. I can't remove anything from the SSD since most of the space taken is by Window updates, and I don't exactly have funds to buy another SSD.

(My apologies for being cranky, just flustered by this annoying problem)

[dgorsman]

Unpackage the installer.  Might help if I backed up a bit and provided an example.  Normally, I don't do the download and install in one go.  I download the program install, back that up (in case of emergency - it happens, have a look at various recent threads on the topic), then use the installer to create a deployement image (I maintain a large number of computers).  In your case, instead of creating the deployment you would unpack the installer to one of your data drives then run the setup EXE from there.

And yes, while inconvenient it is standard practice for installers to unpack everything to the system drive, and install almost everything there.  Many program components *must* reside there; while you don't see the reasons, they are still there.  Even if you can get it installed that 4 GB free space is going to shrink substantially, leaving very little to work with afterwards.  You will need to either make more room or get a larger system drive.