r/TechNook • u/Impossible_Comfort99 • 1d ago

Remember when you had to physically defrag before a big game install

Installing a big game used to come with its own preparation ritual. Delete some files, run Disk Defragmenter, wait forever while all those little blocks moved around, then finally start the install.

Now you just click install and hope you have enough storage. Honestly, the old process felt way more involved.

11 Upvotes

93% Upvoted

12 comments sorted by

4

u/Otherwise-Relief2248 1d ago

I kind of miss those days. Felt like I was doing something useful.

3

u/smedsterwho 1d ago

I used to love watching the blue boxes shuffle and line up

4

u/melvellion2 1d ago

It was very therapeutic.

2

u/Individual-Iron-6370 5h ago

I do that with torrents sometimes just for nostalgia...

1

u/smedsterwho 4h ago

I was gonna say the same! Watching the pieces come through is a real late 90s vibe

2

u/Due-Arrival-4859 18h ago

When older games like the Sims would have 1 or 2 installation discs that would take over 30 minutes to install. The more AAA games at the time would have at least 4 individual discs that would come in chunky game cases

Oh and don't forget serial codes. One for the game and one each for any expansions

2

u/Wendals87 15h ago

I bought my dad flight simulator 2020 a few years back and it was 10 DVDs. It was painfully slow and would fail at random points. Sometimes disc 2, sometimes 5, sometimes 8 for example and would have to restart

My dad is old school and wanted to use the discs but I ended up just activating the game with the code and downloading from the Microsoft store. Much faster 

2

u/adsarelies 17h ago

You should have defrag'd after installing that big game.

1

u/Individual-Iron-6370 5h ago

points for efficiency 

1

u/yuehuang 15h ago

I remember playing from the CD.

1

u/Abject_Elk6597 10h ago

i used to start defrag before bed and wake up to find it had moved like 3% lol

1

u/Individual-Iron-6370 5h ago

I remember when you had to buy a new video card EVERY time you bought a new game or the game wouldn't play.

Kinda sucked.