Is space on your HDD running out? Want to move your steam games from HDD to SSD? Want to move your whole Steam Library to a new Drive? Then fear not, here I will show you how you can safely move your installed steam games from one drive to another.
- How To Download Steam Games On External Hard Drive
- How To Download Steam Games Onto External Hard Drive Mac Pro
I faced a similar situation once. I bought a new SSD and wanted to move some of my games from my Hard Disk Drive to the SSD. Once I was done with the transfer, I later decided to write this tutorial on it.
External Hard Drives External hard drives are not recommended for use with Steam or Steam's games. Aside from many potential performance issues, external hard drives may connect or disconnect from the computer at inopportune times as part of their normal operations. Note that not all games on Steam support Mac. If you've purchased a lot of games on Steam in the past, you'll likely not see all of them in the Library window. When purchasing a game, make sure to look for the Apple logo and the 'Mac OS X' section of the System Requirements in the Store page.
Here in this post, we are going to discuss how you can move a Steam game or your whole Steam Library or a couple of games from there to another Drive. I will be showing multiple ways to move steam games to another drive, so you can try the method with is easy for you to do. There is no need to redownload games that you want to move, just follow some simple steps and you are good to go. Let’s get started.
First, we are going to discuss the easiest way to move games from your steam library to another drive, Steam’s backup and restore Service.
How To Download Steam Games On External Hard Drive
Using Steam’s Backup and Restore.
1. Launch the Steam app on your PC, on the top-left side of the app you will see an option named Steam.
2. Click on it and Select Backup and Restore Games.
3. Select the games that you want to move and click next. On this screen select the backup location and hit enter.
4. Now choose the backup format (preferably CD) and click ok.
5. The backup process is now started; it may take some time to finish depending on the games that you are trying to move so relax and let the steam do its thing.
We will now proceed to restore these games from the backup to your new drive. But before that, you have to uninstall the games from Steam first. (remember not to delete your backup.)
Note: Be careful with the uninstall as it will remove the games from your previous drive. Make sure to follow all the steps correctly to avoid any loss of data.
Final Steps
1. When you have successfully created the backup and uninstalled the games, navigate to “Steam>Settings>Downloads>Steam Library Folders” and add a new library folder there. Add this folder on your new drive where you want to move your games to.
2. Now go to Steam>Backup and Restore Games, select restore a previous backup and hit next.
3. From there, navigate to the backup folder where your game is located and hit next.
How To Download Steam Games Onto External Hard Drive Mac Pro
4. On the next screen that you are presented with, select the new library location and accept any prompts that appear on your screen.
4. The game will now get installed on to your new drive.
Moving Steam Games Manually
If you don’t want to use the backup and restore method, then you can move steam games manually from one drive to another.
1. First, move all the games to your new drive and put them in a single folder. You can find the currently installed steam games on your current steam library folder. The default location for installed steam games is “C:Program Files (x86)Steam”
2. Next, you will have to navigate Steam>Settings>Downloads>Steam Library Folders from the top-left corner of the steam app.
3. From there add a new folder on any location on your new drive where you want to move the games to. Make sure it is not the folder where you have copied your games to.
4. Using a file explorer navigate to the folder that you just created earlier using Steam. A folder named steamapps will be inside there.
5. When in the steamapps folder, create a new folder and call it ‘common.’
6. Now you can proceed to move your steam game to the common folder that you just created.
7. Restart the steam app now and when it launches again, verify that Steam has picked up the new library folder from your other drive. Go to Steam>Settings>Downloads>Steam Library Folders and check your new library folder is there. If it there then you are good to go, if it is not, then you simply have to add it there again.
8. Once it is done, try installing one of the games that you moved to the new drive. On the installation prompt, make sure to select the new Steam library folder and click next. Steam will now proceed to discover existing files, and with this, you have successfully moved steam games to another drive.
You can also set this folder as a default location to make new games automatically install on your preferred drive. For this, right click on the new library folder location on Steam Library Folder and select Make Default Folder.
Now you are done with the transfer, here are some Frequently Asked Questions which people ask when moving or transferring their steam games to a different drive.
F.A.Qs
Q1. Will my saved progress & cutom setting remain when I move my games to new drive?
A. Yes, if you have enabled cloud backup or your game saves are stored on the game folder or even on the Steam installation directory, your progress will not get lost.
Q2. Will it work if I want to transfer my Steam library from an HDD to SSD?
A. Yes, it will. The steps are the same for Hard Disk Drive and a Solid State Drive.
Q3. I have moved the games to a new drive but Steam is prompting me to install the game instead of launching it.
A. If you have manually moved the games to a new library, sometimes you will have to add the library folder to Steam again (refer to step 7 of “Moving Steam Games Manually”).
Q4. Can I use these methods to move my Steam games to an external drive?
A. Yes, the second method will work on external drives as well. But in case of external drives, if you unplug them from your computer when steam is running, you will have to add the library folder again in the settings.
Conclusion
There you go, enjoy playing your steam games from your new drive.
I have tried to simplify the tutorials, and the steps are as easy as possible so you should not have any problems following them. Thank you for reading but if you are still facing any error when moving your games, ping us down in the comments below, we will be glad to help you.
Also, check other stuff which we have posted on our website. You can check this post on Steam Skins (and how to change them) or this one on games like Roblox. Thank you for reading.