keeping games reinstall windows

imginy · 22 Dec 2012 at 15:10

Hi guys,

I plan on reinstalling windows next week when I get my new rig.

I only have slow internet 5 meg and wondered if there was anyway to move my steam and origin games over to another harddrive and back again to save me redownloading them?

Battlefield 3 alone would take me about 2 days lol and I want to use my rig as soon as I get it.

~>Dg<~ · 22 Dec 2012 at 15:11

best to just reinstall fresh

just leave pc on overnight while asleep.

even on a slowish connection shouldnt take that long to reinstall most games.

sirdigga · 22 Dec 2012 at 15:13

~>Dg<~ said:
best to just reinstall fresh

just leave pc on overnight while asleep.

even on a slowish connection shouldnt take that long to reinstall most games.

Best to reinstall fresh? not really, when you can do the below for steam.

With steam games, go to c:/program files/steam/steamapps/

Copy everything in that folder and back up on another hard drive, once formatted/re-installed windows, install steam, and copy that steamapps folder back into the steam folder, delete clientregistry.blob file and restart steam, it'll sort it out for you.

With BF3, I don't think it can be done unless you checked "keep game installers after games have been installed" in the settings menu.

Antony101 · 22 Dec 2012 at 15:13

Just create a backup through steam and copy it to the HDD.
https://support.steampowered.com/kb_article.php?ref=8794-yphv-2033

imginy · 22 Dec 2012 at 16:04

Ok thanks guys that all my steam games sorted out sorted out

Is there anyway I can get bf3 backed up?
This is my favorite game and is now 30 gig download which for me is at least 15 hours solid downloading which would mean waiting a few days after christmas before I can play it.

sirdigga · 22 Dec 2012 at 16:24

Navigate to your origin games directory.
Copy the battefield 3 folder to your backup location.
Install Origin on the new PC.
Copy the backup back into your Origin games folder.
Open Notepad and copy paste the bellow text.
Edit the correct path to the Origin Games folder, eg C:\Program Files\Origin Games\ (Remember to double backslash "\" instead of "\" for the path, in both "GDFBinary" and "Install Dir" fields.
Save the notepad doc as bf3.reg, select "All Files" under the drop menu "Save as type".
Run the registry file and add to registry.
Open Origin, it will say preparing for a while until the process completes checking the files.
Play game.
Here is the text which works for my setup, my orgin games folder is under C:\Games\Orgin Games. Edit appropriately for your setup. Enjoy.

Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Wow6432Node\EA GAMES\Battlefield 3] "GDFBinary"="C:\games\Origin Games\Battlefield 3\GDFBinary_en_US.dll" "GameExplorer"="{A62587A8-42EC-4F3B-A42D-206690BAE079}" "DisplayName"="Battlefield 3™" "Locale"="en_US" "Product GUID"="{76285C16-411A-488A-BCE3-C83CB933D8CF}" "Install Dir"="C:\games\Origin Games\Battlefield 3\"

Antar Bolaeisk · 22 Dec 2012 at 16:31

You don't have to re-install Steam at all. I keep it on a separate drive so OS re-installs don't affect it. There are a handful of games that don't like this, Dragon Age: Oranges and Supreme Commander 2 spring to mind, but for the most part everything will just work.

If you plan on leaving the games on a separate drive be sure to change the owner permissions on the drive as this can lead to some weirdness.

imginy · 22 Dec 2012 at 16:58

sirdigga said:
Navigate to your origin games directory.
Copy the battefield 3 folder to your backup location.
Install Origin on the new PC.
Copy the backup back into your Origin games folder.
Open Notepad and copy paste the bellow text.
Edit the correct path to the Origin Games folder, eg C:\Program Files\Origin Games\ (Remember to double backslash "\" instead of "\" for the path, in both "GDFBinary" and "Install Dir" fields.
Save the notepad doc as bf3.reg, select "All Files" under the drop menu "Save as type".
Run the registry file and add to registry.
Open Origin, it will say preparing for a while until the process completes checking the files.
Play game.
Here is the text which works for my setup, my orgin games folder is under C:\Games\Orgin Games. Edit appropriately for your setup. Enjoy.

Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Wow6432Node\EA GAMES\Battlefield 3] "GDFBinary"="C:\games\Origin Games\Battlefield 3\GDFBinary_en_US.dll" "GameExplorer"="{A62587A8-42EC-4F3B-A42D-206690BAE079}" "DisplayName"="Battlefield 3™" "Locale"="en_US" "Product GUID"="{76285C16-411A-488A-BCE3-C83CB933D8CF}" "Install Dir"="C:\games\Origin Games\Battlefield 3\"

Hey mate thanks.

Mine is the exact same location as yours

but still bit confused as to what I have to do.

imginy · 22 Dec 2012 at 21:46

sirdigga said:
Navigate to your origin games directory.
Copy the battefield 3 folder to your backup location.
Install Origin on the new PC.
Copy the backup back into your Origin games folder.
Open Notepad and copy paste the bellow text.
Edit the correct path to the Origin Games folder, eg C:\Program Files\Origin Games\ (Remember to double backslash "\" instead of "\" for the path, in both "GDFBinary" and "Install Dir" fields.
Save the notepad doc as bf3.reg, select "All Files" under the drop menu "Save as type".
Run the registry file and add to registry.
Open Origin, it will say preparing for a while until the process completes checking the files.
Play game.
Here is the text which works for my setup, my orgin games folder is under C:\Games\Orgin Games. Edit appropriately for your setup. Enjoy.

Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Wow6432Node\EA GAMES\Battlefield 3] "GDFBinary"="C:\games\Origin Games\Battlefield 3\GDFBinary_en_US.dll" "GameExplorer"="{A62587A8-42EC-4F3B-A42D-206690BAE079}" "DisplayName"="Battlefield 3™" "Locale"="en_US" "Product GUID"="{76285C16-411A-488A-BCE3-C83CB933D8CF}" "Install Dir"="C:\games\Origin Games\Battlefield 3\"

Do I just copy that line of text at the bottom into notepad and name it bf3.reg?