Moving Documents Folder

ajtupman · 7 Jan 2017 at 10:15

Hi all,

Bit of a noob question but want to make sure I understand before proceeding.

If I move my documents folder from the 'C' drive to another drive using the 'Move' function in Properties will the likes of Steam know where my save games are automatically or will I have to redirect them to it?

TheVoice · 7 Jan 2017 at 10:52

They should, yes.

d_brennen · 7 Jan 2017 at 11:00

I believe the Move function just copies the folder to the location and changes the Windows Environmental Variable (Google it if nessecary) for %Documents% or similar. You can check the environmental variable before and after to check Windows and applications know what's going on before running into issues

ajtupman · 7 Jan 2017 at 12:51

Ok thanks guys.

WantoN · 9 Jan 2017 at 11:43

I'm considering doing just this, can you let us know how you get on?

EDIT: I'm actually going to move every 'Library' over to another SSD, so if this works I'll report back on 'Saved Games' and other libraries too.

edscdk · 9 Jan 2017 at 11:48

ajtupman said:
will the likes of Steam know where my save games are automatically or will I have to redirect them to it?

depends if its referencing c:\users\<username>\documents or the library... some thing do it one way some apps the other

Orcvader · 9 Jan 2017 at 14:43

After copying your documents folder to the new drive in Explorer on the left pane, right click Documents -> Properties then under location add the new path and delete the old path. Works fine for my Steam games.

mrk · 10 Jan 2017 at 09:23

d_brennen said:
I believe the Move function just copies the folder to the location and changes the Windows Environmental Variable (Google it if nessecary) for %Documents% or similar. You can check the environmental variable before and after to check Windows and applications know what's going on before running into issues

It moves the contents not copies

The downside to this is applications that do not understand this variable and strictly look under the C:/users/... location and still create a folder for their data in there.

STEAM games and other modern games have no problem though.

Admiral Huddy · 10 Jan 2017 at 09:29

as above. for example the appdata remains in the documents folder on the c: partition. You will have to point steam to the new folder, so basically it gives a drop down of where you want games installed.