Moving Steam to another hard drive?

[PhatFreD]

After the Steam Holiday sales I have run out of space on my main hard drive so I need to move Steam to my second hard drive. So my question is:

Can I somehow move the Steam folder or should I just uninstall Steam and then re-install it on the other hard drive? I have made backups of all my games.

[PhatFreD]

I just found these instructions on the Steam forum: https://support.steampowered.com/kb_...hp?p_faqid=231

So it seems the best procedure is to:
1. Backup your steamapps folder.
2. Uninstall Steam.
3. Install Steam in new location.
4. Copy the backed up steamapps folder to new Steam folder.

That way all the saved games, maps and all settings for non-steam cloud capable games will be kept.

[MadMax]

You certainly can move it to another hard drive.

Do a search at steam support pages it has that answer as I've used it before.
Here's the one I found:
(https://support.steampowered.com/kb_...7418-YUBN-8129)



Please observe the following process to move your Steam installation between hard drives or machines:

1. Exit the Steam client application.
2. Browse to the Steam installation folder (C:\Program Files\Steam by default) for the Steam installation you would like to move.
3. Move the steamapps folder from the Steam installation folder to your desktop.
4. Review the Uninstalling Steam topic for instructions to uninstall Steam (this must be done to remove your old Steam installation settings from the Windows Registry).
5. Review the Installing Steam topic for instructions to re-install Steam to the desired location.
6. Move the steamapps folder into the new Steam installation folder to copy all of your downloaded game content, settings, and saved games to the new location.
7. Start Steam and log in to your existing Steam account to confirm that the move was successful.

[r8response]

Move the entire "Steam" folder to your new HDD. Delete the ClientRegistry.blob file.


Wham, bamn thankyou mam

[Jigoku]

r8response : While possible, not recommended. It can cause issues with the steam:// protocol not registering properly.

[PhatFreD]

I just followed my own instructions above moving the steamapps folder and it seemed to work fine. Only thing I had to do was to manually update all of my installed games. They just checked for updates and then it was fine. Finally I can install GTA IV and DOD:S. Yay!

[Thermal Ions]

Very important to back up the steamapps folder first. I found out the hard way last year that uninstalling steam itself also removes all downloaded game content. Thankfully at least my account was only 1/4 the size it is now.

[PhatFreD]

Yes, and for anyone who doesn't know it already you can also right click any game in your games list in steam and choose Backup... This will create files that you can burn onto a DVD or just store on another hard drive. That way you can give backups to friends who don't want to waste download quota. They have to purchase the game in question of course.

[plebc]

I've done the move today to a new hard drive. It took my computer hours.

But now - breathing space on the primary hard drive.

[Chief]

About time I did this as well. For some reason I put steam on the same drive I keep my movies on :S not a wise choice. 2 gig left