Not enough storage space ?????

[76561198372872469]

Hi I have downloaded a game but get the message, not enough storage space, I have uninstalled as much as I can but still not enough space. Can I buy an external memory to plug into my laptop in order to complete installation and store / play ? Any help would be greatly appreciated,

[Rosog]

You should be able to install Steam games on an external SSD or HDD. I have not done it myself so I have no recommendations.

[cruinne]

I have Sims 3 installed on a separate drive to my C drive. Be aware, though, that if it is an external drive it may not work very well - external drives are typically slower than internal ones, though an external SSD should be fine.

Also, no matter what you do, Sims 3 will put your user directory in your computer's Documents directory, so if you are short on space and your Documents directory is on the C drive, that could still be a problem. My current user directory for The Sims 3 is about 28 GB.

[Emma]

Keep in mind that even if you don't use many mods, saves for the Sims 3 are gigantic. Bigger than I've seen in any other game. A fresh, new game will save around 30 MB. That save will steadily increase in size if you play. Mine get up to 170 MB after a couple real weeks of play. They will get even bigger if you enable memories (which I strongly recommend you disable). This is why saving in the game takes so long, because the files are huge. They get a lot bigger with each in-game world (the neighborhoods, the university, vaction worlds) you visit because it saves a copy that includes the changes that happened to them in-game in your save.

If you make a lot of saves, they can take up an enormous amount of space. If you have a flash drive laying around you can use you can move old saves you want to still keep handy out of that folder onto the flash drive.

[Zemecon]

I wonder if making new saves every so often and deleting old saves would help. If I could, I would save my games directly onto a flashdrive but I currently have no idea how to do this without the Steam bootstrapper potentially getting in the way.

[Emma]

I've done it before without Steam even noticing. these saves are too huge to cloud save anyway so Steam doesn't. I don't think it even recognizes them as saves because they're actually folders with a bunch of files in them.

For background, the following files are in saves:
There's a package file called TravelDB. This file is like a temporary container. When your sim moves from one game world to another, either permanently or just visiting, important information is stored here before being copied to the new region's data so it's not lost. If memories are enabled, they often go in here.

There is a file with a random looking name with the "DAT" extension to it that acts as a header for the save, it tells the game which game world you're currently in so it can load you into it when you open the save.

And then for every game world your sim has been to (neighborhoods, university, oasis landing, vacation worlds), there is a NZB file and a package file. The NZB file contains the game world itself and any building/landscape changes. The package file contains everything else. If you moved out of a game world, it's relatively safe to delete that game world's files. It'll simply be reverted to its default state if you ever go back. But anything could go wrong. If it was an actual neighbood you lived in, You'll be fine with this. It's probably not the best idea to do this with the vactation worlds or Oasis Landing. Never do this for the world you're currently living in. Bad things will happen.

There's a program you can use to trim up and clean some junk data from save files. It's useful for cleaning up memories if you've already been playing and then realize you should disable them because of the unimaginable amount of space they waste. Here's a guide for using it to clean those up while not losing things like paintings or photos you intentially took in-game.
http://nraas.wikispaces.com/Kuree%27s+Save+Cleaner

Also has a ink to download it there. Rather than make a backup, I find it's just easier to use NRAAS Saver to automatically prompt you to save that cycles through a set number of saves (4 by default), and simply use this on one of those saves. If it borks something, you can go back to the next one. And eventually it'll be overwritten next time around the loop so you don't have a huge save wasting space.