NOTE: This guide is NOT NEEDED anymore as the setup installer supports multiple drives natively.
WARNING: Some users are experiencing issues with the steps below. You may wish to hold off performing these steps for the time being while we investigate. Thanks.
The team's releasing an update that enables installation of Oculus software and apps to drives other than your system drive (typically, C:\Program Files (x86)\Oculus) in one of the first Rift updates (likely the next 2-3 weeks). In the meantime, there is an unofficial workaround you can use to move your existing Oculus software and all installed games to a different drive.
Note that this is unsupported (!) and doesn't have a migration path back to a good state once we release the update in the next few weeks. Also, note that the full OculusSetup.exe functionality (uninstall, repair) won't work if you're using this workaround.
Your destination drive will need the following to be true:
NTFS file system
Not a network drive
Not a removable drive (like a portable external HD)
Its drive letter (such as E:\) won't change for any other reason
1.2GB free space (in addition to the size of your installed games)
Process:
Install Oculus using OculusSetup.exe ( www.oculus.com/setup - available Monday morning PST)
Launch a command prompt with admin privileges:
Win 7: Start -> All Programs -> Accessories -> right-click Command Prompt, choose Run as administrator
Win 8 or Win 10: Right-click Start or hit Win+X, choose Command Prompt (Admin)
Shutdown the Oculus VR Runtime Service:
Run in the command prompt: net stop OVRService
Move your Oculus folder to another drive while maintaining permissions (as an example, E:\Oculus). You must move the folder using xcopy, or you will break Oculus and risk opening security holes in your system.
Run in the command prompt: xcopy “C:\Program Files (x86)\Oculus” E:\Oculus\ /O /X /E /H /K
Delete the “C:\Program Files (x86)\Oculus” directory
Symlink your new directory with the old directory location:
Run in the command prompt: mklink /d "C:\Program Files (x86)\Oculus" E:\Oculus
I think I found a way to start Oculus Home after having followed @cybereality 's instructions: Open a Rift program (like C:\Program Files (x86)\Oculus\Support\oculus-home\OculusVR.exe). In the Rift it gave me the Health & Safety warning then a warning that it's not an official Oculus program. Use the Xbox button there and Exit to Home. At least, that worked for me, can't guarantee results.
Lol, my Xbox button doesn't work either :disappointed:
A little extra information for symlinking: if you symlink C:\Program Files (x86)\Oculus\tmp too, then the whole downloading/installation procedure takes place on the secondary drive. Otherwise files will still be downloaded to C:.
I will try the suggested technique, but I am really disappointed that someone at Oculus didn't think this through before launch. It has been standard for decades to have a separate system drive that is smaller than storage or scratch disks.
To put this in a language that Oculus should more clearly understand: I am not purchasing any titles off of the Oculus store until you fix this, because that will fill up my C: drive. Instead I will purchase titles off of SteamVR. I am probably not alone.
A little extra information for symlinking: if you symlink C:\Program Files (x86)\Oculus\tmp too, then the whole downloading/installation procedure takes place on the secondary drive. Otherwise files will still be downloaded to C:.
Did you get this to work? I symlinked the tmp folder, but it still somehow managed to hit the c:\ drive? Confirmed by checking drive utilization in perfmon.
I too am getting the flashing after doing the SYMLINK.
Attached are my logs:
Here is the interesting bit:
[2016-03-31 00:21:05] [ERROR] [zip.cpp:unzipCurrentFile:156] Error writing to 'C:\Program Files (x86)\Oculus\tmp\LT_Data/sharedassets7.assets.resS'. [6701] [2016-03-31 00:21:05] [ERROR] [Installer.cpp:installPackage:321] Error extracting package. [2016-03-31 00:21:05] [DEBUG] [Installer.cpp:executeCommand:168] Operation failed. Rolling back changes. [2016-03-31 00:21:05] [DEBUG] [Installer.cpp:installerMain:136] Exiting with code 9.
In my case, the store did restart when I typed in net start OVRService, but after trying to configure a controller (I kept trying to skip, because I did it on another machine at my workplace already) the setup screen sort of froze forcing me to close it. After that, I have not ever been able to re-open the Oculus Home app.
I am currently re-installing, which for some reason takes FOREVER (0.5MB/sec) on my computer. I don't know why...
EDIT: Installing a 3rd time (I suspect my symlink made my 2nd installation fail), the installation went much, much faster (like 10MB/s). Uncertain as to why.
