I bought a number of games off steam a while ago. then I installed widows 7 onto a different partition. However, I can't seem to transfer the backed-up games into my new installation of Windows 7 without it asking for a CD key. Which I didn't get when I bought the game. Any ideas?
Just copy the Steam folder from your old installation to a seperate drive, reinstall windows, then simply move the Steam folder to where you want and make a shortcut to the relevant steam file. Steam will automatically install the service it needs and you lose nothing. I did this very thing recently when I installed my new SSD.
sounds like you need to contact steam support to find out whats happening. Hopefully you kept a copy of the receipt of the purchase.
^ What he said. After all, if I installed Steam on any computer and logged into my account, it should allow me to install all the games connected to my account. Unless it's a game like Spore which has a limited install count, which you have reached.
I had something similar to this when I reinstalled. All of the non-valve games I'd bought, weren't in my games list, just not there at all. I sent a support ticket thing to valve, but then the next day the games had all returned anyway.
You should have no problem once you get in contact with steam. The information saved regarding your account should include all your purchase information which would be more than enough for steam to verify the authenticity of them.
You should be able to move the steamapps folder into the new Steam installation, restart Steam and they'll all be there. If that doesn't work, right-clicking on the game should bring up an option to "View CD Key". Failing that, contacting Steam should resolve everything pretty quickly.
Greetings! Before copying the Steam folder to the new drive, just install Steam and login with your account details, then exit Steam entirely. Now you can copy the old Steam to the new Steam folder. Perform the "verify files integrity" check and you are set.
Don't even need to do that. Just move it where you want, make a new shortcut for Steam and run it, Steam will do the rest.
As opposed to losing the CD Key pamphlet after having thrown away the receipt and being completely boned? At least with Steam the purchases always remain on your account and it's just a matter of them going in and fixing things up.
I dont have to worry about that, as the keys stay in the case with the disc. A little bit of organization on my end and I dont have to worry about contacting somebody else to get the software I purchased working. With digital copies, you still need to keep some form of receipt as proof of purchase. Without it, they could always say they have no record of you ever buying the game. If you have to keep something anyways, why not it be a physical copy? Imo, physical copies are just better, and for me, more convenient even. They even give you the joy of finding a copy of the game in the future, like 20 years from now, and remembering: "Hey, I remember that game, good times." And then laugh at the obsolete state of the games technology. Cant ever really experience that with digital distribution.
Things can go wrong either way... You're right about the future though. I completely agree. The only thing however is we won't be able to play current PC games in 20 years anyway because of software issues. The days of everlasting games (consoles cartridges) are unfortunately over.
It's built into the account. Steam has an account history showing your purchases/gifts received/gifts given/etc.
That may be so, but imo its not dependable. Maybe I am just paranoid, but I prefer physical copies because I dont like having to depend on other people. A physical copy means I get to install/play the game whenever I want, regardless of internet connection, server load, or reliability of the servers themselves. If something where to happen to their servers, it wouldnt matter to me at all.
