Gaming Installing a NTFS specific Windows game onto another format?

[BakuFunn]

I've been scouring the web to install my pirated(;D) copy of Napoleon - Total War onto my external hard drive by Western Digital formatted into HFS Journaled (HFSJ)

Now yes, I know WD is horrible, but that's not the problem.

I dual-boot Windows 7 and OS X on my Mac (No flame wars, please) to run Windows games, as we all know- nobody cares to develop for Macs. I've installed many many Windows games onto my external FireWire hard drive, and ran them all off. Now, this is the first game that can only be installed onto a NTFS formatted volume because the game contains files larger than 4GB. I can't reformat my external because it has over 700GB worth of files, and my Mac's HD only has a maximum capacity of 320GB. It's pretty bad, I know. It's risky formatting without erasing data, and I can't even back up the files. I know for a fact HFS and every variation of it supports files over 4GB, so it should work.

Questions:
Is there a way to install this game onto something not NTFS? I don't have experience with reverse engineering, so I can't extract the files myself, and my Bootcamp partition is only 30GB, with only about 17GB free.

Also, as a workaround, I would clear out more of my internal NTFS partition and install it, only to copy it onto the HFSJ volume. Is there a way to temporarily compress Windows 7 (32-bit, if it matters.)? I've deleted all my programs and games on the partition, but I still can't get those extra 3GB free.

Thanks in advance.

 

[Originality]

So much effort over a single game. I would've bought an extra external drive not long after encountering such a problem.

Certain files in Windows can be compressed, but most can't (because they're so often accessed). I'm guessing you've already tried clearing out any temp files in your bid to free up space. I think you may be able to uninstall certain things from Windows too to free up space, but I doubt you'll find 3GB that way.

 

[Rydian]

Why not get an HFS driver for windows?

 

[Deleted member 35947]

Also, as a workaround, I would clear out more of my internal NTFS partition and install it, only to copy it onto the HFSJ volume. Is there a way to temporarily compress Windows 7 (32-bit, if it matters.)? I've deleted all my programs and games on the partition, but I still can't get those extra 3GB free.

Thanks in advance.

Disable hibernate, it'll save you space in whatever size your ram is currently. Also turn off system restore and do a disk cleanup to remove temp files, and the hibernation file etc.

It's possible to compress the entire drive if it's on NTFS. Just right click the drive and go to properties. You'll see the option there. Not sure how much space that'll save you, and I'd only do it as a temporary measure, as it will effect performance. Also not every file will be compressed as Windows will have some opened and in use.

Installing the game on your internal drive and then transferring to your external sounds like the easiest solution to me. You may have to edit your Napoleon - Total War registry entry after you move it.

 

[BakuFunn]

Thanks guys, disabling hibernate, the page file, and compressing the drive barely netted me the space needed, with a few hundred megabytes available.

Edhel, how do you edit the registry? Cause every time I do this, It'll just render my shortcuts useless.
I appreciate the help!

And yeah, I do have a HFS driver (MacDrive) but the game is NTFS specific.