Can 2 installs of Skyrim co exist on same pc?

[Quahogs]

I'm looking to finally push through a long play through but I think I caught the modding bug too  and want to continue to build/tweak/create a new Skyrim world without screwing with the existing one.   If I'm able to add another SSD to my PC what kind of issues may I run into if I want a whole other separate Skyrim install on the new SSD?  I currently run original Skyrim on the SSD which also houses my WIN8 operating system.  I'm running MO of course and running out of room so a different profile won't cut it.  

 

Thanks !

[hishutup]

You can have two different mo installs

That's what I did for step and my own

 

If you are talking about two separate skyrim installs then I'm going to say no.

[DoubleYou]

You'd have to alter the registry key each time you switched between the two skyrim installations. It's pointless to have it installed on two separate locations.

[Quahogs]

Very good then.  Glad I asked.  

 

So the correct method would an SSD#2 and another install of MO.  Now would I encounter a bottleneck or response issue with the Mods on SSD#2 and the game files on SSD#1 ?   

[Aiyen]

In theory no.... in practice.. then it entirely depends on the specific hardware involved. 

[Simondererste]

Another MO Profile is what you want. There is no point in having 2 Skyrim folder(at least of a more simplistic way, because skse and enb is still messing with it).

Your location of the profiles / mods / download folders of MO are fully customizable as far as i know. I have steam and most of MO on my ssd but i switched my download folder for MO to my HDD.

You only need 1 one install of MO and Skyrim. With that you can have a nearly vanilla/untouched Skyrim and with your MO Profiles you can have as many nearly completely separated Modded Skyrims as you want.

If your diskspace on ssd#1 is full than you may want to put the location of the mods onto another SSD/HDD

[hishutup]

I have found in doing multiple profiles that It became quite difficult to manage...

Thats why I suggested two installations of MO

but

I am not worried about download limits 

I am not worried about space

I am not worried about the base game folders like enb and so on

 

 

In my particular case...

If I want STEP I go and start mo that is setup for STEP

If I want to play with a Load Order that I am working on then I start MO in that install

 

I dont have to play with updating or forgetting about mods...

I dont have to manage both installs

I can reserve the custom categories for merge lists (sometimes they are really large, 30+ mods)

 

 

I never really understood how people can do it all in one. 

I just can keep up with the maintenance 

and Im not a first time user by any means :P

[edesart]

To the question: Sort of. It depends on your definition of 2 installs. If you use MO you can have virtually an infinite amount of installs because every launch is it's own vm. Even in the past when I used nmm I often kept a complete copy of a backed up installation on another drive. I strongly recommend you download and use Mod Organizer.

 

[edesart]

To hishutup; I'm not worried about most of that either and I'm good running one install of MO but I do have a question. Did you have much trouble getting STEP set up? I'm not new to this at all but it's beginning to piss me off.  Other setup's I still have in MO run but the step installs choke every time. I'm sure I missed a memo.

[hishutup]

I'm afraid I don't really understand what you are asking.

 

Is there anything that you should know but is never mentioned?

Is that what you wanted to ask?

 

---

 

for me installing STEP was a little bit rocky because I kept getting lost because everything looks the same but I was told that could never be fixed.

If you read the detailed instructions everything should go smoothly

[BossNoob]

 

I have found in doing multiple profiles that It became quite difficult to manage...

Thats why I suggested two installations of MO

When I first started using Mod Organizer, I setup a Default profile, a STEP Extended 2.2.9 Profile, and a STEP REGS profile. I then noticed that every mod shows up in all profiles (even mods that aren't installed in that profile), which I think defeats the purpose of having profiles. It would be a lot more intuitive and user friendly if it showed only the mods installed in each profile. If I had to do this again (and I probably will after I finish this playthrough), I'll go with multiple installations of Mod Organizer.

[hishutup]

thats exactly what I thought...

the multiple profiles don't mean anything because all the files are a giant clusterf__k

regardless of the current profile

[TechAngel85]

When I first started using Mod Organizer, I setup a Default profile, a STEP Extended 2.2.9 Profile, and a STEP REGS profile. I then noticed that every mod shows up in all profiles (even mods that aren't installed in that profile), which I think defeats the purpose of having profiles. It would be a lot more intuitive and user friendly if it showed only the mods installed in each profile. If I had to do this again (and I probably will after I finish this playthrough), I'll go with multiple installations of Mod Organizer.

You misunderstand the use of the profiles. All mods are installed in MO as a whole. Then profiles allow users to separate those mods into specific setups in order to achieve a specific result. The profiles where never meant to separate installs of mods or you'd end up with massive amounts of space being used up for each install instance of the mod. Setting up multiple installs for different setups is what actually defeats the purpose of profiles. Just think about it for a moment....for example: Default profile = 8GBs, Extended Profile = 10GBs, and REGS Profiles = 12 GBs. If you used profiles, then you'd only be using up 12GBs. If you do multiple installs for each profile you're using up 30GBs! That defeats the purpose of profiles. The only time you should have multiple installs of MO is for multiple games such as, one for Skyrim and one for Fallout: New Vegas.

 

It's not that big of an issue anyway because the mods you don't use on a profile simply end up at the bottom of the mod list most of the time. I've only know it to bother the well organized user (which I am included in that group), but after a while you simply get used to it and it becomes second nature to simply ignore those mods at the bottom. The only time I find this a little annoying is when you're first setting up your profiles.

[hishutup]

Idk about you but 30 GB is nothing...

even 250GB for that matter... 

 

I still find it a hassle because you need different mod configurations for different installs.

At that point you either have to have a really good memory or be really good at organizing.

 

like STEP Core and Extended.... Those are fairly compatible and dont require multiple profiles

 

STEP Extended - SR:LE hybrid, REGS and MMO how ever is a different beast.

You need to edit the STEP patches, you need to reinstall some mods for patches and different configurations, you need to keep track of merging(it gets difficult if you are doing 40-50 esp at once), then if you have a bunch of other mods that you use and require certain patches and different configs at that point you might as well forget about the STEP core and Extended profile because you now have to go back through and reconfigure everything. 

 

Like I said before, it turns into a giant mess

If you want two different setups I would say stick with two different MO installs because it'll save you a massive headache in the future. 

 

Tech, if you are able to successfully accomplish using multiple profiles for different installs then I will congratulate you on it because I cannot handle something like that.

 

 

EDIT: I didn't even mention different install orders...

That makes it even worse even though, I generally extract .bsa so it does matter. 

I'll openly admit that it can cause issues but not if you know where to place it.

[Simondererste]

Maybe there should be an option to hide unselected mods although it will not help while you still need to select new one. We will see if MO can improve something with it, but for now i'm super happy to have it!