Backing up Steam

Inazuma

Inazuma

Inazuma

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I'm due to move to a new computer soon. So my question is, when I install Steam on the new computer and log in to my account, will all my games re-download themselves? Would I need to enter any serial keys at all?
 
yes. They are logged with your steam account so no problems :) It will take a long time if you have a lot of games however!

Matthew
 
If there is any way you can keep the files on an external drove or partition then do. It saves you time because when you reinstal steam it recognises the files that already exist, meaning it doesnt have to download them all again. If your anything like me your steam folder is HUGE!
 
SebC said:
Which folder contains all my saves and game files?
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The steamapps folder holds I think all the information for the games you've got. In there you've got loads of .gcf files. They hold all the basic data for your games, and they're kind of like Zip files, just the data compressed, and they're what steam downloads on your first install. To prevent the ultra-lengthy first download, just copy them, as after that you've only got updates, as they only download onto the 'unzipped' files.
For save games, they're normally in the actual game folders. For Half-Life 2 you would go to Steam/steamapps/<steam username>/half-life 2/hl2/SAVE and copy the whole SAVE folder. Other steam games are just as easy, so for portal it would be Steam/steamapps/<username>/portal/portal/SAVE. I think for non-valve games, they're stored in the common folder under steamapps, and the save games are probably hiding in there somewhere, but I only have one game that's non-valve, and that's Prey, which hides away under Steam/steamapps/common/Prey, so I'm guessing other ones like Call Of Juarez, COD4 and the like would hide there too, but I'm not certain.
 
Steam has its own built in backup system, right click on each game you want, then backup local content, IIRC, you can even split the back up, up, in order to fit it onto many types of media.
 
I just copied my entire steam folder onto my external hard drive. Probably not the best way to do it but it worked fine.

PK!
 
misterPK said:
I just copied my entire steam folder onto my external hard drive. Probably not the best way to do it but it worked fine.

PK!
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Best way of doing it, Steam is stand alone, doesn't require reg entries or anything.

So the easiest method is just back up your entire steam Dir, then when you've got your new PC setup just run Steam and you are away again :)
 
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