Which I now have.
So, can you play Starfield on an HDD?
Not Starfield per se, which ismostly good when its running off an SSD.

Also, it has rubbish load times and texture pop-in.
The collapse in stability is the most naturally game-ruining of these behaviours.
By contrast, on an HDD it crashedtwiceduring a single five-minute attempt at recording some footage for Liam.

Here’s one I suffered earlier:
Quieter moments arent spared either.
These breakdowns in communication do not, as far as I can tell, occur on SSDs.
It’s not just me, either.

After reinstalling on his SSD, normal Starfield service resumed.
Graham, another HDD user, has been seeing these issues too.
In one case, the hard drive was a full ten times slower.

You could say Starfield is simply reflecting these changing times.
Still, if Starfield being irreparably wrecked on HDD represents some kind of ending…
I dunno, I suppose I just didnt imagine it being such a violent one.