How to install Firefox on D drive instead of C drive

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ParadiseMissouri
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How to install Firefox on D drive instead of C drive

Post by ParadiseMissouri »

My C drive is dangerously full, and I desperately need free space.

Firefox installs itself automatically on the C drive. I do not see any option to install it on the D drive, where I have lots of room.

Can I move Firefox from C to D, and have it still work? Or is there a way to download Firefox directly to D.
FxUser
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Post by FxUser »

If you have complete backups (program and profile folders) of FF, the program does not need to be installed. Simply copy the backups to your desired location (the program folders do NOT need to be in C:\Program Files, nor do the profile folders need to be in C:\Documents and Settings\<username>\Application Data. They can be named anything you like, but I suggest keeping it simple.

The one thing you must do before attempting to run either program is run its Profile Manager, either to create a new profile, or to tell the program where to find an existing profile folder. This action creates the Firefox folder in C:\Documents and Settings\<username>\Application Data and writes the included profiles.ini file, which tells the program where to find the profile folder.

The necessary Registry entries are created during this process and when FF is first run.

If you install FF using the Custom installation, the option also allows essentially the same method of locating and naming the program and profile folders.
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the-edmeister
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Post by the-edmeister »

C and D - different physical drives? or the same physical drive with different logical partitions?
If the latter, you would probably be better off re-partitioning that drive.
I use an old program called RPM - Ranish Partition Manager - a DOS program that runs from a floppy disk for FAT-16 and FAT-32 file systems.
Google for RPM

Regarding FxUser's comments:
1. you don't really need "Registry" entries for Firefox to work - the Zip nightly builds don't create Registry entries
2. AFAIK, Registry entries aren't done when the Profile Manager is run
.
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Vectorspace
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Post by Vectorspace »

During installation, you have the option of Standard Installation or Custom Installation. Custom allows you to choose the install location.

You can install the application to a different drive, but come components will always reside on the C drive.
"All things being equal, the simplest answer is usually the correct one" - Occam's Razor
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FxUser
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Post by FxUser »

the-edmeister wrote:2. AFAIK, Registry entries aren't done when the Profile Manager is run


When Firefox is first run, not when the Profile Mgr. is run. Sorry if this wasn't clear.
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dickvl
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Post by dickvl »

The file profiles.ini that Firefox uses to find the profile folder always needs to be on the C drive (default system drive).
Your actual profile folder can be on any drive if you use the Profile Manager to Create a New Profile and click "Choose Folder" to specify a location for the new profile.
Make sure that you choose a new and empty folder with no other files in it for the profile folder to avoid problems.

You can also set a specific folder for the cache if you want to: http://kb.mozillazine.org/Browser.cache ... _directory
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Post by VanillaMozilla »

Summary:
0. Unless you can clear out a LOT of space, repartitioning is probably best if you can do it.

Otherwise:
1. Uninstall and reinstall (using custom installation you can put it on any drive). You won't lose any data doing this.
2. Create a new profile with the Profile Manager. It allows you to put the profile in any location. Be sure to use a NEW folder!!!
3. As trolly mentioned, the cache is not located in the profile directory any more.
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dickvl
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Post by dickvl »

[^]: "3. As trolly mentioned, the cache is not located in the profile directory any more"

That is only true if you put the profile in the default location in %APPDATA%.
If you choose the location of the new profile then the cache will be in the same folder.
VanillaMozilla
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Post by VanillaMozilla »

No kidding? OK, so scratch #3. It couldn't be simpler.

But I forgot to mention to clear the cache (Tools > Clear Private Data) and close Firefox before step 1.
brain2028
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Re: How to install Firefox on D drive instead of C drive

Post by brain2028 »

Question, is it faster or slower,, i currently have a 1tb hard drive with windows 7 install and 111gb SSD i wanted to know if i install firefox on the SSD will it run faster
 
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Re: How to install Firefox on D drive instead of C drive

Post by   »

install FF Portable in the SSD and find out


 
mutexf
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Re: How to install Firefox on D drive instead of C drive

Post by mutexf »

A lot of people would say you should not put the Firefox cache on an SSD drive. Caches and types of files that change thousands of times a second might eventually wear out an SSD - some say it isn't a real problem, but it seems like a bad risk.
Here is a bit of chat about that: http://hints.macworld.com/article.php?s ... 0204203424

Will it run faster? A bit, but usually anything that feels slow is either the rendering, or the downloading of things that aren't in the cache, neither of which will be helped.

Note that Firefox Portable tends to turn off the disk cache anyway to not put wear on Flash Drives, so although that will save you in one way, it isn't likely to feel any faster.
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DanRaisch
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Re: How to install Firefox on D drive instead of C drive

Post by DanRaisch »

And I would say that there is no good reason to post to a thread that died out almost five years ago.

Locking this due to the age of the original posts.
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James
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Re: How to install Firefox on D drive instead of C drive

Post by James »

Anyways this thread was ancient so locking.
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