portable setup External SSD 100% Portability for Launchbox, Help!

[Deemeister36]

I was wondering if it is possible to make my (F:) external 4TB SSD 100% portable? 

I notice that some Emulators/PC games rely on C:/Documents and C:/Appdata/Roaming, even though I choose my external, when installing.

I hear that if you create a .txt called "portable" inside the emulator folders, that it should do the trick?

Please let me know if you need some pictures or if you need to know specifically, which emulator/pc game.

 

Thanks!

Dee

[1quicksi]

Maybe this will help?

 

[faeran]

On 8/18/2025 at 2:34 PM, Deemeister36 said:

I was wondering if it is possible to make my (F:) external 4TB SSD 100% portable? 

I notice that some Emulators/PC games rely on C:/Documents and C:/Appdata/Roaming, even though I choose my external, when installing.

I hear that if you create a .txt called "portable" inside the emulator folders, that it should do the trick?

Please let me know if you need some pictures or if you need to know specifically, which emulator/pc game.

 

Thanks!

Dee

Not every emulator is the same. Most emulators do have some kind of method to make it portable, but each one would require some research as to how they do it. There's no one size fits all solution there.

Any emulator that you download inside of LaunchBox, we tend to automatically apply the portable solution for each of the emulators that we support.

[Deemeister36]

Thank you @faeran. I appreciate the reply. I will see which consoles are the ones not entirely portable and do some research for each.

[Deemeister36]

@1quicksi Thank you for the video! I will take a look when I get a chance!

[JoeViking245]

Didn't watch the video to see what all it covered.  But this article from the LaunchBox Strategy Guide may help also.  (It covers emulators and their portability, required dependencies and maybe some other goodies.)

Moving Your LaunchBox Instance to a New PC - LaunchBox

[Deemeister36]

@1quicksi I just saw the video and this is what I did to set it up to be portable but when I open like the PSP emulator, it regenerates some folders on my C:/Documents or C:/Appdata/Local. I wish there were an excel/spreadsheet with a list of the emulators and each saying how to make it portable (like creating a portable.txt for one or creating a folder for another, etc..)

[Deemeister36]

@JoeViking245 Thank you! This helped a little bit more. I read the part where it says "You’ll need to transfer any settings stored outside the emulator’s directory. Check the emulator’s documentation for details on where its configuration files are stored. I asked chatgpt and it gave me this (see below), so I hope it helps. I will try it out myself and see if it's accurate:

 

LaunchBox Emulator Portability Guide
================================================================

RetroArch (Multi-System)
- Download the ZIP build (not the installer).
- Keep retroarch.cfg in the same folder as retroarch.exe.
- All configs and playlists stay inside the RetroArch folder.

PCSX2 (PS2)
- Place an empty file named portable.ini (or portable.txt) in the same folder as pcsx2.exe.
- All configs and saves stay inside the PCSX2 folder.

Dolphin (GameCube/Wii)
- Create an empty file named portable.txt in the same folder as Dolphin.exe.
- A User folder is created inside Dolphin; all configs and saves stay there.

DuckStation (PS1)
- Create an empty file named portable.txt in the same folder as DuckStation.exe.
- All configs and saves stay inside the DuckStation folder.

PPSSPP (PSP)
- Download the portable ZIP build.
- Keep the memstick folder inside the PPSSPP directory.

Citra (3DS)
- Inside the Citra folder, create a new folder named user.
- All configs and saves stay inside that user folder.

melonDS (DS)
- Ensure melonDS.ini is in the same folder as melonDS.exe.
- Configs and saves stay inside the melonDS folder.

Redream (Dreamcast)
- Already portable.
- Keep the entire Redream folder together; configs and saves stay inside.

RMG (Nintendo 64)
- Download the Windows portable build.
- All configs and saves stay in the same folder as the executable.

MAME
- Run mame.exe -createconfig.
- mame.ini is created inside the MAME folder; configs stay there.

Kega Fusion (Sega)
- Already portable.
- Fusion.ini is saved in the same folder as Fusion.exe.

4DO (3DO)
- Already portable.
- Saves and configs are stored in the same folder as 4DO.exe.

CD-i Emulator
- Configs are saved in cdiemu.ini inside the emulator folder.
- Registration/license information is stored in the Windows registry.
- When moving to a new PC, you must re-enter your license key.

Kronos (Saturn)
- By default, saves and configs are stored in %LOCALAPPDATA%\kronos.
- Before moving LaunchBox, copy the entire %LOCALAPPDATA%\kronos folder.
- After moving, paste it back into %LOCALAPPDATA%\kronos on the new PC.
- Kronos has no portable mode switch; it always uses %LOCALAPPDATA%.

FS-UAE (Amiga)
- Create an empty file named Portable.ini in the FS-UAE folder.
- All configs and saves stay inside the FS-UAE folder.

================================================================
End of list.