I have been enjoying Minecraft lately, after getting java edition.
The problem? Every month, I have to reset my whole PC to keep it from lagging to a bog.
However, when I do this, I have to reinstall Minecraft.
It has gotten HIGHLY annoying, so I wanted to move Minecraft to my flash drive.
Nothing worked! It ALWAYS used my local AppData anyway, meaning that when the wipe occurs I have to wait an hour for a reinstall... D:
Is there any launcher, or method to run Minecraft 1.16 off of a flash drive?
Specifications: Flashdrive has 60 GB of storage, 20 GB left after all of apps and other stuff take space.
2 Answers
I do have to agree with esqew that "Having to reset your PC every month seems to be indicative of a larger problem..." and HolyBlackCat that "Don't waste time on figuring out how to run MC from usb stick. Figure out what's slowing down your PC."
However, there are third-party Minecraft launchers that are portable (run entirely from a self-contained folder). In particular, my favorite is MultiMC, which in addition to the features described on the page, loads entirely from the folder you unzip (Windows) or untar (Mac/Linux) it into—which can be on an external mount like a USB drive or network share.
2You need to change the directory in the version profile. First, you need to copy the '.minecraft' folder to your external drive as well as the 'Minecraft Launcher' folder which should be in 'C:\Program Files (x86)' (This is where the executable launcher is stored. You can also find it by checking where the desktop shortcut leads to).
External drive size shouldn't be a problem, my folders only took 1,41 GB of data combined.
You can then open the launcher from your external drive on your newly reset PC, log in to Minecraft, and then:
Go to the "Installations" tab then open the mini-menu at the end of your version and click edit:
You then click browse under "GAME DIRECTORY" to open up a file manager window and find your external drive with the '.minecraft' folder:
Make sure the "Folder:" below shows the correct name, in the image it says "Mapp:" because it's Swedish.
Then you can Click 'ok' and Save. The game should use the folder on the external drive if all went well. However, when I tried this (multiple times) it still downloaded 200~ MB of data. But not when I started Minecraft a 2:nd time or afterward.
Important note:
You need to activate "Keep the Launcher open while games are running" in the settings otherwise the Launcher is going to reset to use the default local AppData folder next time you start the game.
When Testing I found that this is probably only necessary for the first launch(I launched it 3 times before I tested this, but I think it makes no difference). I unactivated the option later; so the Launcher closes on game launch and the setting was saved. But remember to activate this option at every first launch, i.e. for every PC reset, because this option is as default disabled (To make sure it works you can always check the "game directory" settings before starting):
Not dupe due to updated launcher
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