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Steam Physically moving steam games drive

Discussion in 'Gaming' started by GaryP, 24 Nov 2024.

  1. GaryP

    GaryP RIP Tel

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    I have my steam games on its own physical drive.

    I am moving steam to my new (to me) pc. If I move the physical drives with the games on it, will it stop my new pc downloading all the games again ?

    What folders will I need to copy to the new pc ? Or should I just install steam client and redownload all the games ?

    Current pc is win7 and new one win10
     
  2. Arboreal

    Arboreal Keeper of the Electric Currants

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    From what I remember about Steam storage is you can nominate a particular folder or folders to have your games on.
    When you install the client on your new PC, you should be able to 'tell' it where to look for the folder(s).

    One of my PCs had games over 2 drives and Steam was aware that the files had been downloaded, but they weren't available at that moment when I'd removed the secondary drive temporarily.
     
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  3. GaryP

    GaryP RIP Tel

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    Thanks I have been having a read up further after posting this and all my games are installed on a phyycial drive, with all the common files so if I put that physical drive in the new pc and point steam to it, I am hoping they will be recognised.
     
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  4. Arboreal

    Arboreal Keeper of the Electric Currants

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    That's what I'd expect to work
     
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  5. Canon

    Canon Reformed

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    If the drive moved to the new PC is mounted as the same drive letter (C:/ D:/ F:/ etc) then when you install Steam on the new (to you) machine Steam should automatically pick up the game installations and place them as installed in your library as before, it may just need to verify game files. If this does not happen, through Steam - settings - storage, you should be able to select your transferred drive as a steam library location, at which point it should then pull all your installed games and you can continue to download straight onto that drive.

    If the drive you are transferring is also your OS drive it might be worth transferring your save game files from documents folder to your new OS drive to make sure they're in the expected location.
     
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  6. GaryP

    GaryP RIP Tel

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    No its not on same drive as OS.. I assumed I would rename as same drive letter. I was just hoping I didn't have to redownload them all. Its only about 1.5TB in total and half of them I wouldn't bother with to be honest.
     
  7. David

    David μoʍ ɼouმ qᴉq λon ƨbԍuq ϝʁλᴉuმ ϝo ʁԍɑq ϝμᴉƨ

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    All you need is to copy the Steamapps folder, install Steam on the new rig and copy the Steamapps folder to the same place. Done it a dozen times.
     
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  8. GaryP

    GaryP RIP Tel

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    I am literally going to move the whole drive into the new rig, all I have to do is connect it through my steam program ?

    Then what do I copy for my save games... any folders in c drive ?
     
  9. David

    David μoʍ ɼouმ qᴉq λon ƨbԍuq ϝʁλᴉuმ ϝo ʁԍɑq ϝμᴉƨ

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    No, if your entire Steam install is on that drive, you don't even need to install steam on the new PC. You just install the drive, navigate to the Steam folder on it, create a shortcut of the steam executable and then copy it to your desktop. It'll just work.
     
  10. GaryP

    GaryP RIP Tel

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    I have files on c drive so I think it was installed on c and then the storage drive was j
     
  11. GaryP

    GaryP RIP Tel

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    2.3GB steam file on C
     
  12. David

    David μoʍ ɼouმ qᴉq λon ƨbԍuq ϝʁλᴉuმ ϝo ʁԍɑq ϝμᴉƨ

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    You got anything on there you need to keep? 2.3GB isn't a lot.
     
  13. GaryP

    GaryP RIP Tel

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    Nothing, I was just saving redownloading everything again. The saved games would be useful though, about 2TB on J drive.
     
  14. David

    David μoʍ ɼouმ qᴉq λon ƨbԍuq ϝʁλᴉuმ ϝo ʁԍɑq ϝμᴉƨ

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    Job done then. just bin that install, unless it's a much faster drive than the original and has enough capacity.
     
  15. IamJudd

    IamJudd Multimodder

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    Funny, I thought this thread was about games that physically moved you to tears!
    The Last Guardian and the original The Walking Dead (which is more season 1).
     

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