My daughter is running out of room on her Alienware because of all her steam game downloads.
I'm trying to help her but I've been reading and it's really confusing.
I know that I can have Windows automatically install apps to the new external drive but we need to move some of her already downloaded games to the external drive. Can an external drive run applications such as steam games? I know that hard drives have specific speeds but externals are running off of usb. Is the external going to be fast enough?
She doesn't want to re-download the games and I don't blame her either.
Much thanks!
I'm trying to help her but I've been reading and it's really confusing.
I know that I can have Windows automatically install apps to the new external drive but we need to move some of her already downloaded games to the external drive. Can an external drive run applications such as steam games? I know that hard drives have specific speeds but externals are running off of usb. Is the external going to be fast enough?
She doesn't want to re-download the games and I don't blame her either.
Much thanks!
- Can You Download Game From Steam Onto Usb And Play On Another Computer To Pc
- Can You Download Game From Steam Onto Usb And Play On Another Computer Mac
When you run the Steam client executable you've 'installed' on the USB stick on another machine without the Steam client installed it will act as if it has never been installed on that machine. It will connect to the Internet to try to download the latest version of the Steam client.
Install games on a flash drive? Theoretically I could install it onto my 1 gig USB Jump Drive right? Then I could just plug it into a computer and play it instantly. You can just plug-in. Is it possible to put a Steam game onto a USB drive and have it work without a direct way to install Steam? Can I purchase a Steam game but install it and play it on a computer without internet? Hot Network Questions Who, if anyone, was the first astronaut to return to earth in a different vessel?
Unlike most Windows applications, Steam can be easily moved between hard drives without redownloading or reinstalling anything. If you want to put Steam on a new hard drive – say, if you’ve bought a new computer or a larger hard drive for your games – you can copy your games over without going through a long download process.
This is just one of the things that makes Steam awesome – if you have hundreds of gigabytes of games installed, good luck easily moving them to a new hard driveHow To Move Windows Software To Another Hard Drive Without Breaking AnythingHow To Move Windows Software To Another Hard Drive Without Breaking AnythingMove any Windows program to another hard drive, without breaking the program. If your primary hard drive is full, and what you've put on there is software, SymMover is what you're looking for. Many people..Read More unless you use Steam. While Steam stores all its games inside the Steam folder, some save files for third-party games are stored elsewhere and may require a bit more work to transfer.
Getting Started
Before continuing, you should be aware of a couple things:
- Ensure you remember your Steam account name and password. You’ll have to re-enter both when you follow this procedure. You should also ensure that your Steam account is linked to an email account you still have access to, in case your need to reset your password.
- External hard drives are a useful way to transfer Steam’s files between computers, but you shouldn’t run Steam off an external hard drive. Playing a game off an external hard driveWhat Is The Best Backup Solution? [Geeks Weigh In]What Is The Best Backup Solution? [Geeks Weigh In]Ten years ago an external hard drive – or even a physical disc such as a CD-ROM – was the only practical way to back up files. Consumer-grade network storage solutions were primitive, expensive and..Read More connected over USB will result in poor performance.
Moving Your Steam Folder
First, close Steam if it’s running. After you do, browse to the Steam folder on your hard drive. By default, Steam installs to C:Program FilesSteam (on 32-bit versions of Windows) or C:Program Files (x86)Steam (on 64-bit versions of WindowsHow to Choose Between 32-bit & 64-bit Windows Operating SystemsHow to Choose Between 32-bit & 64-bit Windows Operating SystemsWhen you install Windows, you can pick between the 32-bit and 64-bit version of the operating system. We help you choose the version that is right for you.Read More). If you installed Steam to a custom location, check there instead.
Can You Download Game From Steam Onto Usb And Play On Another Computer To Pc
In the Steam folder, select all the files except the SteamApps folder and the Steam.exe file and delete them. To quickly select the files, press Ctrl+A3 Advanced Tips & Tricks For Using Windows Explorer3 Advanced Tips & Tricks For Using Windows Explorer Download game naruto ninja way 9 full version. Windows Explorer is the default Windows file manager. Last week I introduced you to 3 easy ways to improve Windows 7 Explorer by tweaking features and using it to its full potential. In this article,..Read More in the folder, then Ctrl+Click the SteamApps folder and Steam.exe file.
You should now have an empty folder containing only the SteamApps folder – which contains your downloaded gamesA Selection Of The Best Free-To-Play Steam GamesA Selection Of The Best Free-To-Play Steam GamesContent delivery service Steam is a real money-spinner for Valve, prompting publishers like EA to shy away from it in pursuit of their own system. That doesn’t mean there aren’t a couple of free gems..Read More — and the Steam.exe program.
Move the entire Steam folder to a new location. If you’re placing it on a new hard drive in your existing system, move it to a location like D:Steam. If you’re migrating your Steam files to a new computer, copy the Steam folder to an external hard drive (or transfer it over the network5 Ways to Transfer Files From One Computer to Another5 Ways to Transfer Files From One Computer to AnotherNeed to transfer files from one PC to another? Here's how to do that quickly and easily, using both hardware and software.Read More), then place it anywhere you like on your new hard drive.
Once you’ve moved the Steam folder, launch Steam by double-clicking the Steam.exe file and log into your account. Steam will automatically download the few necessary files.
Before playing a game, you may want to verify its cache – in other words, check to make sure all its files are present on your system and aren’t corrupted. If Steam finds a problem, it will redownload the appropriate files. Happy valentine day images download free. To verify a game’s cache, right-click the game in Steam, select Properties, click the Local Files tab, and click the Verify Integrity of Game Cache button.
Migrating Game Saves
Can You Download Game From Steam Onto Usb And Play On Another Computer Mac
Many games store their save files in Steam Cloud, which stores your game saves online and synchronizes them between your computers. To check which of your installed games support Steam Cloud, click the List View button at the top right corner of your Steam games libraryBuy, Trade & Giveaway Steam Games With This Awesome Network Of SitesBuy, Trade & Giveaway Steam Games With This Awesome Network Of SitesSteam! You either love it for being one of the largest and most successful gaming communities online, or you absolutely hate it because you're completely against all that hoopla over digital rights. With that in..Read More and look for the games with cloud icons. Steam also stores other things online, including game screenshotsThe Secret To Capturing Top Quality Screenshots With Steam [MUO Gaming]The Secret To Capturing Top Quality Screenshots With Steam [MUO Gaming]Grabbing an action-packed screenshot from a video game can be tough. More often than not using the standard Print Screen command in Windows will result in a blank screen being captured; this is true for..Read More you take.
Unfortunately, many games do not support Steam Cloud. Some of these games will store their save files an an obvious location, such as the My Games folder in your Documents directory. To copy these saves over, copy the My Games directory and place it in the same location on your other computer.
To copy a specific game’s save files over, you can try searching for its save game location on GoogleGet More Out Of Google [INFOGRAPHIC]Get More Out Of Google [INFOGRAPHIC]Google may be the dominant search engine on the web but when it comes to finding something specific, many people have no idea how to look and what to type into that search box. Many..Read More. However, you might want to use GameSave Manager, which is a faster way to migrate many game saves over at once. While GameSave Manager doesn’t support every game, it can quickly scan your hard drive for game saves and package them into a single, convenient file. This file can be restored on another computer using GameSave Manager, effectively migrating your saved games to the other computer.
Have you ever moved Steam to another hard drive? Did you run into any problems? Feel free to leave a comment below – we’ll answer any questions you have.
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- Do not use this! It totally wrecked my steam, i followed it exactly do not do it find another way!
- Moved all my steam games to another drive but now all my shortcut icons are just a plain white paper icon can anybody help
- Yeah.. this didn't work for me. And it's not just you, Steam also has pretty much the same directions on their help also.I did step by step what you said.. over 640Gigs of games.. Steam just will not allow me to verify. They are there, but my steam shows no games installed, and going to Properties to verify game by game.. no go, as option is greyed out.Oh well.. time to start downloading again. :(
- Used for gta 5 , game won't start :(
- Thanks for this simple yet elegant tip. Why isn't it in steam FAQ already?
- hey, what if there's no steam.exe but there's steam.exe.old?? what should i do??
- This article is is not correct, I have over 40gb that steam doesn't regonise and have to redownlaod every file to the exact same place on the same drive.
- I used freefile sync and move my entire steamapps to another drive, then deleted the old steam after the newone was working!Thanks for the tip, just don't use windows only to copy 100Gb+ with lots of small files as you cant resume propperly ^^
- Thank-you this free program is so awesome!
- Okay I know this is an old post but I just wanted to say thank you as I've just moved my steam games from one laptop to another using a removable hard drive. One thing I would add however is that some save games are read/write protected for the original PC only. However you can resolve this by right clicking on the game folder and allowing all to have read/write access rather than read only. Then copy it over to the new laptop / pc and all is right with the world :-)
- You say that for the third party games we need to move the 'My games' folder to the same location.. but where do I move it if my other drive is 'F:' in the same computer.. or do I leave it in 'C:' ???
- Hey mate, I did this completely the way it was shown, but none of my games saved. I have to re install all of them. Even know all the game and it's content on on the new drive and in the steam app folder, should i just re install, or is there a way around this? All the files are there, there is no way to tell steam that it's there and that i don't have to re install.
- Hi, thanks for this. We have a computer that is running out of disk space so we are adding a new drive. We plan to move the steam installation to the new drive as you have said. We also have other games that have the saved games in different locations. Moving the stem folder will save about 500 gb on the old hard drive. Could we leave the other games, not part of the steam folder, where they are without moving them? We will possibly have saved enough space on the old hd so leaving the other games where they are would be ok space wise. Do you think all the games will still work?Sniper elite wii iso download. Thanks
- Hey Thanks so much man, this really cleared up a lot of space on my SSD, which is only 120 GB and I really only wanted to use for the OS.
- Thanks for the post. easy to read and straight to the point, getting a new 1 tb hdd just for steam next week :)
- in new machine I installed steam to D drive, after loading game from steam (many hrs await) the game is temporarily unavailable.try again later. already 2 weeks i try to fix it and nothing helps. what u say steam reply in a week thats a fast reaction !
- Thank you for this post. This would have saved me a lot of trouble when I switched to a new computer this past summer, had I known about it then, but it will be useful in the future I'm sure.I also discovered that Steam offers a feature to back up currently installed games, which I assume should also allow me to also restore the backed up games to a new hard drive, I am wondering if there are any noticeable differences or advantages and disadvantages between doing it one way or the other?
- I want to transfer my Steam files to a second internal hard drive on the same computer. What happens with the game saves then? Do I have to create a 'my games' folder on the second hard drive or will it find the saves in the first hdd? Please answer.
- can you help me i don't wanna move all my games just my account folder register i install a new steam and a new pc but when i enter my account name and password i just can't log on they do some question what i'm forgotten when i did my account thx
- I do not have a file named steam.exe in that folder. I do have one named steam and when i click on properties it is an .exe file. Is this the right one?
And also, how do you transfer saves between hard drives? - So, by doing this i will be able to play any steam games from the hard drive ? Does this work with external hard drives as well?
- I guess this is only for Steam? I have Steam Installed, but there are other games that are installed scattered all around in different locations on a different disk(internal) and partitions due to lack of space! Is it possible to backup these Games too along with steam backup or I have to forget it and go through a long process of reinstall?!!Am about to reformat my computer from scratch, this time though leaving plenty of room for the OS', programs, and games then continue with Steam restore. So it would help to know if it's possible or a no go!
- I have one question, how do you get all the desktop shortcuts to appear? please email me with answer.
- Thank you so much for this, it was very helpful!
- Now i followed ur article to the letter, and btw thank you for contribuiting your time for this information so when i started copying to the other bigger drive its copies around 10 gigs and just hangs .. on a file called 'winui.gcf'
so i took it alone and said ill copy it last so it copies all the files .. now when i paste
it just hangs there not moving an inch for like 4 hours, so finnally i decided to cancel, its 51 gigs im copying i have free disk space how ever not all my games are up to date, might that be the case? please reply and thank you for ur time - this should make everything quicker for me
- Im sure lots of people enjoy this. I know what im doing this afternoon.
- Sure wish I knew this a couple of months ago when I bought a new PC. Oh well good to know anyway. hope it saves some people some extra work.
- This is a great tip! I also learned recently that you can copy game folders from computer to computer without having to download them from scratch.
- Hallelujah !! I'm in that exact position, since I'm about to buy a new computer.
btw, can we transfert the save files from one computer to another if there is no cloud? - This. Changes. Everything. As a tinkerer, I'm constantly messing up my computer, and restoring it from backups. But I've always re-downloaded my Steam games. All ~100GB of them.