installing skyrim on external ssd

[anjenthedog]

I used to run Skyrim SE on my (C:) root drive (500G SSD)  but a Steam crash and obtuse "support" from both Steam and Vortex left me inoperable for the past few months.

I just ordered an external SSD that I'm hoping to use for both Skyrim AE (or SE rollback) and ideally Vortex too, once it arrives in a ~week., to pull as much of the storage load from my root drive as I can (vortex has quite a storage footprint all on its own from all the download files it stores, at nearly 150G for my old setup)

I'm looking for any important tips I need to be aware of to pull this off with a minimum of pain. 

Note: this will be a reinstall, not a salvage operation, ftr, fwiw (I will likely pull some resources over from the archived, game contents:  presets, texture/mesh, ini settings, etc, but I'm not trying to revive/fix the old game, just so we're on the same page.)

Note, I'll also likely install many mods from locally archived copies instead of redownloading (where useable under whichever version AE/SE I choose), fwiw... and yes, I know they won't be vortex linked any more unless I do some sort of overwrite update)

thanks

[7531Leonidas]

I know for sure that your external drive needs to be in NTFS format.  There were a few posts on running Vortex from a removable drive on the Vortex Support forum, might want to search there.  Might be useful if it gets disconnected, or power goes out while playing.

[anjenthedog]

Thanks Leonidas. I usually format drives as NTFS by habit (leftover from the NT 3.51/4 days...), but good to know.

I'll check out the "vortex on external drive" threads too.