How do I avoid having 4 copies of all my installed mods?

[VictorCreed2]

When I manually download SkyrimSE mods I put them in a folder I created. I then drag them into Vortex, install, etc. Then every mod appears in C:\ProgramData\Vortex\skyrimse AND C:\ProgramData\Vortex\downloads\skyrimse AND then in the game's own data folder. This is almost 10GB of mods, multiplied to 40GB of precious hard drive space. Is this normal or what? The old NMM would only make one additional copy, so it'd be my downloads plus the game's data folder. And I thought that was bad.

[HadToRegister]

When I manually download SkyrimSE mods I put them in a folder I created. I then drag them into Vortex, install, etc. Then every mod appears in C:\ProgramData\Vortex\skyrimse AND C:\ProgramData\Vortex\downloads\skyrimse AND then in the game's own data folder. This is almost 10GB of mods, multiplied to 40GB of precious hard drive space. Is this normal or what? The old NMM would only make one additional copy, so it'd be my downloads plus the game's data folder. And I thought that was bad.

 

 

For one, WHY are you downloading your mods to a separate Folder, then dragging those mods to your Vortex Download Folder, then installing them?

 

Just download the Mods with Vortex, or Manually download the mods to your Vortex Download folder

[HadToRegister]

Manually Downloading, then dragging to Vortex is also going to prevent you from seeing ANY of the mod info, and you'll have to go through each mod one-by-one and request the info from NexusMods manually.

Why are you doing everything the hard way?

The old NMM, did the same thing, BTW, it's not Vortex's fault that you're choosing to blow up your mod collection 2x

[VictorCreed2]

Either way, Vortex makes TWO copies in its own folder, so I have to have three copies minimum.

 

I don't know how to download mods through Vortex. I prefer to do it manually. If this is a weird quirk then so be it. I'll put my own personal downloads on a seperate drive and that'll be that. But why does Vortex make two copies of everything plus a third copy in the game's data? NMM didn't create any copies--it just took them from my personal download folder and put them into the game data folder.

[HadToRegister]

Either way, Vortex makes TWO copies in its own folder, so I have to have three copies minimum.

 

 

No you don't

 

1. Download Mods to Vortex DOWNLOADS Folder.

2. Install Mod with Vortex

 

You now have one copy of the mod ARCHIVE in the Downloads Folder

You have an extracted archive in the Mod Staging Folder

 

What shows up in your DATA folder is just the LINKS, to the Extracted Copy.

 

Here' s NMM by comparison

 

1. Download Mod Archive to NMM DOWNLOAD folder

2. Install Mod with NMM

 

You now have one copy of the mod ARCHIVE in the Downloads Folder

You have an extracted archive in the Mod Staging Folder

 

SAME EXACT THING.

 

You're adding the Third copy, by downloading everything to a separate download folder, then dragging the mod to the vortex download folder.

 

[FlamingCheeseMonkey]

Edit: Whelp, HtR beat me to it XD

 

Just adding in comparisons between NMM, Vortex and MO2 (adding in MO2 as additional information).

 

NMM:

1. Downloaded Mods
2. Extracted Mods (directly into game folder)

Vortex:

1. Downloaded Mods
2. Mod Staging Folder (extracted mods)
3. Hard Links (each hard link reports the size of the actual file, but the size of a hard link, is much lower. I think it might be somewhere around 10kb?)

MO2:

1. Downloaded Mods
2. Extracted mods

[HadToRegister]

NMM:

1. 
   
2. Downloaded Mods
   
3. Extracted Mods (directly into game folder)
   
4. Hardlinks (each hard link reports the size of the actual file, but the size of a hard link, is much lower. I think it might be somewhere around 10kb?)
   

Vortex:

1. 
   
2. Downloaded Mods
   
3. Mod Staging Folder (extracted mods)
   
4. Hard Links (each hard link reports the size of the actual file, but the size of a hard link, is much lower. I think it might be somewhere around 10kb?)
   

MO2:

1. 
   
2. Downloaded Mods
   
3. Extracted mods
   
4. Virtual Links
   

[Guest deleted34304850]

basically, despite your protestations, you're doing it all wrong.

 

first, go and read and watch videos on how vortex works.

second, pay close attention to what people in this forum are telling you. you're new to vortex, the people helping you have been using it since it came out. they've hit all the snags and figured it out. read their words, follow the instruction and it will make your life easier.

[HadToRegister]

Either way, Vortex makes TWO copies in its own folder, so I have to have three copies minimum.

 

I don't know how to download mods through Vortex. I prefer to do it manually. If this is a weird quirk then so be it. I'll put my own personal downloads on a seperate drive and that'll be that. But why does Vortex make two copies of everything plus a third copy in the game's data? NMM didn't create any copies--it just took them from my personal download folder and put them into the game data folder.

 

To set Vortex to download mods

 

 

 

Now when you click on "Download with Mod Manager" Vortex will download the file to the Vortex Download folder.

 

If you do it that way, you can use Vortex to check for updates, and also have the mod information right inside of Vortex.

 

If you INSIST on Downloading Manually, just change a setting in your Browser so every time you download a file, it asks you where you want to download it to, and just navigate to the Vortex Download Folder and download it there.

 

 

You've been shown two ways to make this easier on yourself, but it sounds like you want to keep doing it the hard way, and blowing up your hard drives by unnecessarily wasting space by keeping 4 copies of everything

[VictorCreed2]

To me, download with mod manager is the hard way. I understand how to eliminate an extra copy of my mods, by downloading everything directly into Vortex's download folder. This doesn't stop there from being two versions of everything in the Vortex folder and a third version in the data folder.

 

But I see someone mentioned "Hard Links" and I have no idea what that is. Is that the copy of the mod that's in the data folder? If that is the case, then that's just confusing.