Certain games refusing to work from secondary drive

robotnyk

New Member
Messages
7
Hey everyone,

I ran into a problem lately, and I'm starting to think that it is a Windows 8(.1) related issue.

I built (well, got someone to actually build it) a new PC recently, all new system, and decided to go with Windows 8.1. My primary, C: drive where Windows is installed is a 120 GB SSD. My secondary drive is a 1 TB HDD. I planned on using the latter for games, and storage, and using the SSD for Windows, and a small number of other applications.

Problems started when I bought Splinter Cell Blacklist a couple of weeks ago. I installed it through uPlay, patched it, but it didn't start. Clicked on play in uPlay, and then big fat nothing. I found the executable in the task manager, but it didn't actually work. I managed to find a workaround: I installed it on my C:, SSD drive, and lo and behold, it started no problem.

Then a couple of days ago, when the new Thief game was released, I bought it through Steam. I started the game, but there was no music, the characters' voice-over wasn't audible, and the subtitles weren't visible, even though I turned them on. I checked the forums, and I found a lot of people having this exact, similar, and other audio related issues, so I though that it's something they will patch soon. But out of curiosity I tried installing it on C:, and boom, music, voice-over, subtitles, everything working fine suddenly.

I was suspicious at this point, and then just yesterday I got the standalone version of the new Assassin's Creed DLC, Freedom Cry. I started up the game, and it crashed immediately. I tried running it as admin and whatnot, to no avail, but I tried this game from C:, and once again, the game started without problems.

Now, I have plenty of other games, which work fine installed on my secondary drive, installed through Steam or Origin. Crysis 3, Battlefield 4, Path of Exile, Dishonored, CoD Ghost, Company of Heroes 2, Castlevania LOS 2, and others work fine.

It's good that I found a relatively easy workaround, but it's not an ideal solution, as games are getting bigger and bigger, Thief for example takes away 25 GB, and I don't want games to take up space on my SSD.

I tried a lot of things. Running the games in compatibility mode and/or as an admin, but nothing worked. I have a single account in Windows. It doesn't have a password set. I tried tweeking the file permissons too, setting everything to "allow", but that didn't solve the issue either. My Windows, drivers, directx, visual c++ 2005, 2008, 2010 and 12, everything is up to date.

What do I have to do to make these games run from my secondary hard drive? Thanks in advance, if you have a solution for this issue.
 

My Computer

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  • OS
    Windows 8.1
    Computer type
    PC/Desktop
    CPU
    Intel Core i5-4570
    Motherboard
    GIGABYTE GA-B85M-D3H
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    CORSAIR 8GB Vengeance Low Profile DDR3 1600MHz
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    GIGABYTE GV-N770OC-2GD GTX770
    Hard Drives
    KINGSTON 120GB SATA3 2,5" HyperX 3K SH103S3/120G
    WD 1TB Black 7200rpm 64MB SATA3 WD1003FZEX
    PSU
    XFX Pro 650W Modular Edition
    Case
    FRACTAL DESIGN Core 3000
    Cooling
    COOLERMASTER Hyper 212 EVO
Hi robotnyk,

Honestly there's no reason for those games not to run from your secondary hard drive. I'm a gamer myself and though I have a 256GB SSD drive I don't run any of my games from it, but instead all my games are installed and ran from partitioned 2TB drive; in this case "G" drive.

That said, you "may" be running into permission problems. See step #14 here: Tips on Troubleshooting Game Issues - Windows 7 Help Forums

BTW if you check my system specs you'll see I'm running Windows 8.1 no issues game wise.

Anyway check the permissions on the drive and/or folders the games are installed to. You might also check my tips guide for other suggestions to help get your issues solved.

Let us know.
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 8.1 Pro with Media Center
    Computer type
    PC/Desktop
    System Manufacturer/Model
    Custom built by me
    CPU
    Haswell i7-4770K
    Motherboard
    Gigabyte G1 Sniper 5 (BIOS F9)
    Memory
    Corsair Dominator Platinum 32 gig (1866MHz)
    Graphics Card(s)
    Sapphire R9-280 Vapor X
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    Soundblaster ZXR
    Monitor(s) Displays
    NEC PA242W - 24 inch
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    Samsung 512gig 850 Pro SSD (OS), Samsung 256gig 840 Pro SSD (photo editing), Western Digital Caviar Black 2TB HD
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    EVGA Supernova 1000 G2
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    RAM Speed: 1866MHZ @ 9-10-10-27-2T, 1.5v
thanks for the reply

tried messing with permissions, but when I try to change that on D:\ windows says it can't assess (? not sure about the wording in the English version, I'm using a localized one) the files in that folder. Which is, again, odd, as it's on a secondary drive, and not a system folder.

couple of things I left out of the symptoms list. when splinter cell started fine on C:\, a system validation ran before the game started. that never happened while I was trying to run it from D:\. The other symptom is the Assassins Creed DLC crash points to ntdll.dll when started from D:\
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 8.1
    Computer type
    PC/Desktop
    CPU
    Intel Core i5-4570
    Motherboard
    GIGABYTE GA-B85M-D3H
    Memory
    CORSAIR 8GB Vengeance Low Profile DDR3 1600MHz
    Graphics Card(s)
    GIGABYTE GV-N770OC-2GD GTX770
    Hard Drives
    KINGSTON 120GB SATA3 2,5" HyperX 3K SH103S3/120G
    WD 1TB Black 7200rpm 64MB SATA3 WD1003FZEX
    PSU
    XFX Pro 650W Modular Edition
    Case
    FRACTAL DESIGN Core 3000
    Cooling
    COOLERMASTER Hyper 212 EVO
tried messing with permissions, but when I try to change that on D:\ windows says it can't assess (? not sure about the wording in the English version (Access), I'm using a localized one) the files in that folder. Which is, again, odd, as it's on a secondary drive, and not a system folder.

couple of things I left out of the symptoms list. when splinter cell started fine on C:\, a system validation ran before the game started. that never happened while I was trying to run it from D:\. The other symptom is the Assassins Creed DLC crash points to ntdll.dll when started from D:\

It sounds like you have a permission issue with that drive. You may want to try and take control of it by adding your name as administrator. If this isn't your PC, than you'll have to seek the owner's permission.

couple of things I left out of the symptoms list. when splinter cell started fine on C:\, a system validation ran before the game started. that never happened while I was trying to run it from D:\. The other symptom is the Assassins Creed DLC crash points to ntdll.dll when started from D:\

Did you by chance install the game on "C" drive, then copy the folder over to D?

If you did that, that WILL cause problems. You need to do a custom install and tell the game(s) where you want them to install. Do not install to C and than copy over to another drive as that screws up the registry locations for the original install and breaks the game(s).

Let us know.
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 8.1 Pro with Media Center
    Computer type
    PC/Desktop
    System Manufacturer/Model
    Custom built by me
    CPU
    Haswell i7-4770K
    Motherboard
    Gigabyte G1 Sniper 5 (BIOS F9)
    Memory
    Corsair Dominator Platinum 32 gig (1866MHz)
    Graphics Card(s)
    Sapphire R9-280 Vapor X
    Sound Card
    Soundblaster ZXR
    Monitor(s) Displays
    NEC PA242W - 24 inch
    Screen Resolution
    1920 x 1200
    Hard Drives
    Samsung 512gig 850 Pro SSD (OS), Samsung 256gig 840 Pro SSD (photo editing), Western Digital Caviar Black 2TB HD
    PSU
    EVGA Supernova 1000 G2
    Case
    Cooler Master HAF X
    Cooling
    Corsair H100i Closed Loop Cooler
    Keyboard
    Logitech Wireless Wave
    Mouse
    Logitech Performance MX
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    High Speed
    Browser
    IE11
    Antivirus
    Norton Security
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    RAM Speed: 1866MHZ @ 9-10-10-27-2T, 1.5v
how can I take control of the drive exactly?

and to answer your question, no, I did not just copy the installed files from C:\ to D:\, games were installed directly to D:\
And even that I did in different ways, as Steam itself is installed on C:, and the games are installed to the D: drive, but with uPlay, everything was on D:\, as I forget to modify the path of uplay when I installed it first.
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 8.1
    Computer type
    PC/Desktop
    CPU
    Intel Core i5-4570
    Motherboard
    GIGABYTE GA-B85M-D3H
    Memory
    CORSAIR 8GB Vengeance Low Profile DDR3 1600MHz
    Graphics Card(s)
    GIGABYTE GV-N770OC-2GD GTX770
    Hard Drives
    KINGSTON 120GB SATA3 2,5" HyperX 3K SH103S3/120G
    WD 1TB Black 7200rpm 64MB SATA3 WD1003FZEX
    PSU
    XFX Pro 650W Modular Edition
    Case
    FRACTAL DESIGN Core 3000
    Cooling
    COOLERMASTER Hyper 212 EVO

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 8.1 Pro with Media Center
    Computer type
    PC/Desktop
    System Manufacturer/Model
    Custom built by me
    CPU
    Haswell i7-4770K
    Motherboard
    Gigabyte G1 Sniper 5 (BIOS F9)
    Memory
    Corsair Dominator Platinum 32 gig (1866MHz)
    Graphics Card(s)
    Sapphire R9-280 Vapor X
    Sound Card
    Soundblaster ZXR
    Monitor(s) Displays
    NEC PA242W - 24 inch
    Screen Resolution
    1920 x 1200
    Hard Drives
    Samsung 512gig 850 Pro SSD (OS), Samsung 256gig 840 Pro SSD (photo editing), Western Digital Caviar Black 2TB HD
    PSU
    EVGA Supernova 1000 G2
    Case
    Cooler Master HAF X
    Cooling
    Corsair H100i Closed Loop Cooler
    Keyboard
    Logitech Wireless Wave
    Mouse
    Logitech Performance MX
    Internet Speed
    High Speed
    Browser
    IE11
    Antivirus
    Norton Security
    Other Info
    RAM Speed: 1866MHZ @ 9-10-10-27-2T, 1.5v
yeah, sorry about that, I thought you're talking about something else. I've mentioned that it didn't work.

when I add the new entry, and try to apply the changes it shows a warning for certain files and folders. I found the error message as it would appear in english:

"an error occured while applying security information to:

[files/folders it had problems with]

failed to enumerate objects in the container. access is denied"
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 8.1
    Computer type
    PC/Desktop
    CPU
    Intel Core i5-4570
    Motherboard
    GIGABYTE GA-B85M-D3H
    Memory
    CORSAIR 8GB Vengeance Low Profile DDR3 1600MHz
    Graphics Card(s)
    GIGABYTE GV-N770OC-2GD GTX770
    Hard Drives
    KINGSTON 120GB SATA3 2,5" HyperX 3K SH103S3/120G
    WD 1TB Black 7200rpm 64MB SATA3 WD1003FZEX
    PSU
    XFX Pro 650W Modular Edition
    Case
    FRACTAL DESIGN Core 3000
    Cooling
    COOLERMASTER Hyper 212 EVO
I suggest you try it again, on the drive itself, clicking OK to any errors it gives, re-boot, and try your games again.
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 8.1 Pro with Media Center
    Computer type
    PC/Desktop
    System Manufacturer/Model
    Custom built by me
    CPU
    Haswell i7-4770K
    Motherboard
    Gigabyte G1 Sniper 5 (BIOS F9)
    Memory
    Corsair Dominator Platinum 32 gig (1866MHz)
    Graphics Card(s)
    Sapphire R9-280 Vapor X
    Sound Card
    Soundblaster ZXR
    Monitor(s) Displays
    NEC PA242W - 24 inch
    Screen Resolution
    1920 x 1200
    Hard Drives
    Samsung 512gig 850 Pro SSD (OS), Samsung 256gig 840 Pro SSD (photo editing), Western Digital Caviar Black 2TB HD
    PSU
    EVGA Supernova 1000 G2
    Case
    Cooler Master HAF X
    Cooling
    Corsair H100i Closed Loop Cooler
    Keyboard
    Logitech Wireless Wave
    Mouse
    Logitech Performance MX
    Internet Speed
    High Speed
    Browser
    IE11
    Antivirus
    Norton Security
    Other Info
    RAM Speed: 1866MHZ @ 9-10-10-27-2T, 1.5v
tried it again, rebooted, didn't work, tried it again in a different way, and wasted a lot of time, as windows started to compress the files on D:, so now I can waste a lot more time uncompress those... how did I even ended up doing that I'm not sure. I don't know... I was convinced that I'm a bit above average when it comes to troubleshooting Windows, but this shows that I'm truly lost with this issue.

But one thing is for sure, at this point, the troubleshooting is actually getting to a point where it's just not worth the effort, as I'm pretty close to do harm to other parts of the system.

I suspected that this is an issue of file access and permissions, I just didn't know how can I solve it. Thank you for your assistance, but it looks like I can't solve this issue this way. Maybe if sometime in the future I have to reinstall Windows, I can make a full format on all drives, and that will solve this problem.

When I installed this windows, I made the mistake of not partitioning the D:\ drive from the windows installer, and I did it from windows later when I've realized this. Maybe that broke the permissions in a way I'm not able to fix now, but I'm just really guessing at this point.

If you or anyone else have any other suggestions I should try, I will be thankful, but for now I think I'll just try to live with this issue, and I'll just install problematic games to C: instead.

Thanks for your help sygnus21, but I give up :)
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 8.1
    Computer type
    PC/Desktop
    CPU
    Intel Core i5-4570
    Motherboard
    GIGABYTE GA-B85M-D3H
    Memory
    CORSAIR 8GB Vengeance Low Profile DDR3 1600MHz
    Graphics Card(s)
    GIGABYTE GV-N770OC-2GD GTX770
    Hard Drives
    KINGSTON 120GB SATA3 2,5" HyperX 3K SH103S3/120G
    WD 1TB Black 7200rpm 64MB SATA3 WD1003FZEX
    PSU
    XFX Pro 650W Modular Edition
    Case
    FRACTAL DESIGN Core 3000
    Cooling
    COOLERMASTER Hyper 212 EVO
tried it again, rebooted, didn't work, tried it again in a different way, and wasted a lot of time, as windows started to compress the files on D:, so now I can waste a lot more time uncompress those...

Thanks for your help sygnus21, but I give up :)

I've no idea what you did but giving a drive or folder permissions should not be compressing anything.

Perhaps you can find someone locally who's a bit more computer savvy take a look at it and help walk you through it.

Good luck; and thanks.
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 8.1 Pro with Media Center
    Computer type
    PC/Desktop
    System Manufacturer/Model
    Custom built by me
    CPU
    Haswell i7-4770K
    Motherboard
    Gigabyte G1 Sniper 5 (BIOS F9)
    Memory
    Corsair Dominator Platinum 32 gig (1866MHz)
    Graphics Card(s)
    Sapphire R9-280 Vapor X
    Sound Card
    Soundblaster ZXR
    Monitor(s) Displays
    NEC PA242W - 24 inch
    Screen Resolution
    1920 x 1200
    Hard Drives
    Samsung 512gig 850 Pro SSD (OS), Samsung 256gig 840 Pro SSD (photo editing), Western Digital Caviar Black 2TB HD
    PSU
    EVGA Supernova 1000 G2
    Case
    Cooler Master HAF X
    Cooling
    Corsair H100i Closed Loop Cooler
    Keyboard
    Logitech Wireless Wave
    Mouse
    Logitech Performance MX
    Internet Speed
    High Speed
    Browser
    IE11
    Antivirus
    Norton Security
    Other Info
    RAM Speed: 1866MHZ @ 9-10-10-27-2T, 1.5v
Well I'm at least decent when it comes to PC, I've been using windows since win98. But I've never had to work with folder permissions until now.

Anyway, whenever I manage to find a solution, I will post it here.
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 8.1
    Computer type
    PC/Desktop
    CPU
    Intel Core i5-4570
    Motherboard
    GIGABYTE GA-B85M-D3H
    Memory
    CORSAIR 8GB Vengeance Low Profile DDR3 1600MHz
    Graphics Card(s)
    GIGABYTE GV-N770OC-2GD GTX770
    Hard Drives
    KINGSTON 120GB SATA3 2,5" HyperX 3K SH103S3/120G
    WD 1TB Black 7200rpm 64MB SATA3 WD1003FZEX
    PSU
    XFX Pro 650W Modular Edition
    Case
    FRACTAL DESIGN Core 3000
    Cooling
    COOLERMASTER Hyper 212 EVO
Good luck.

Oh, and one other thing that just popped into my head.... make sure there's nothing wrong with D drive. In other words, that the drive isn't going bad.
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 8.1 Pro with Media Center
    Computer type
    PC/Desktop
    System Manufacturer/Model
    Custom built by me
    CPU
    Haswell i7-4770K
    Motherboard
    Gigabyte G1 Sniper 5 (BIOS F9)
    Memory
    Corsair Dominator Platinum 32 gig (1866MHz)
    Graphics Card(s)
    Sapphire R9-280 Vapor X
    Sound Card
    Soundblaster ZXR
    Monitor(s) Displays
    NEC PA242W - 24 inch
    Screen Resolution
    1920 x 1200
    Hard Drives
    Samsung 512gig 850 Pro SSD (OS), Samsung 256gig 840 Pro SSD (photo editing), Western Digital Caviar Black 2TB HD
    PSU
    EVGA Supernova 1000 G2
    Case
    Cooler Master HAF X
    Cooling
    Corsair H100i Closed Loop Cooler
    Keyboard
    Logitech Wireless Wave
    Mouse
    Logitech Performance MX
    Internet Speed
    High Speed
    Browser
    IE11
    Antivirus
    Norton Security
    Other Info
    RAM Speed: 1866MHZ @ 9-10-10-27-2T, 1.5v
still no solution as of yet, however, I can add Diablo 3 as another problematic game for me.
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 8.1
    Computer type
    PC/Desktop
    CPU
    Intel Core i5-4570
    Motherboard
    GIGABYTE GA-B85M-D3H
    Memory
    CORSAIR 8GB Vengeance Low Profile DDR3 1600MHz
    Graphics Card(s)
    GIGABYTE GV-N770OC-2GD GTX770
    Hard Drives
    KINGSTON 120GB SATA3 2,5" HyperX 3K SH103S3/120G
    WD 1TB Black 7200rpm 64MB SATA3 WD1003FZEX
    PSU
    XFX Pro 650W Modular Edition
    Case
    FRACTAL DESIGN Core 3000
    Cooling
    COOLERMASTER Hyper 212 EVO
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