Quick steam question relating to games

[dr4g0nf1y]

I haven't bought anything from steam as of yet although if this idea works I might get a few asap.

If I buy/download a game from steam it will download and maybe self install(?), but I normally just download extra maps and mods for games that I've bought on disc and installed.

would I then be able to copy and paste the directory folder in the steam folder and back that up to disc and just copy and paste back into the folder at a later date to save me from downloading again?

There's a few games I wish to download but I want to do a fresh install with win7pro so obviously I'm not installing many things until I've loaded that.

cheers

 

[apeZ]

Yes.

 

[Duff-Man]

As above - yes on all counts

Steam is quite flexible really. I much prefer it to having physical media (which is annoyingly easy to misplace). It's very convenient, especially if you're an absent minded fool like myself

 

[Mahnsikir]

There's a few games I wish to download but I want to do a fresh install with win7pro so obviously I'm not installing many things until I've loaded that.

cheers

If youve got a partition/2nd hard drive you can download the games now and before you install win7 you can just copy the game folders (ie C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\common\commander keen) to the back up drive.

Then when youve installed win7 and have downloaded steam just pop the back up folders back to the right path, open up steam and dbl click the game on the not installed list and steam will check to see what files you've already got, you can alternately use steam back up utility but Ive found that to be slower.

 

[dr4g0nf1y]

ah fantastic, that's a brilliant relief lol

at home I only have 512kb download so it would be a nuisance to download only to have to download again in less than a month.

since I saw the id pack and the jedi pack I've been so desperate to play those games it's been driving me made lol but I also knew that you can also re-download the games but sometimes you only have a limited number you can do that, either in general or per pc.

just another question to expand on those answers:

would it just download and when it's doe be ready to play? thus meaning it's fine just to copy the whatever named folder?

btw cheers apeZ and Duff-Man, that's really made my day

 

[dr4g0nf1y]

If youve got a partition/2nd hard drive you can download the games now and before you install win7 you can just copy the game folders (ie C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\common\commander keen) to the back up drive.

Then when youve installed win7 and have downloaded steam just pop the back up folders back to the right path, open up steam and dbl click the game on the not installed list and steam will check to see what files you've already got, you can alternately use steam back up utility but Ive found that to be slower.

I've just got a single 500gb seagate at the moment but from what the other guys were saying I might just download them and copy them to a portable when I install win7.

Been thinking about an SSD for a while but unfortunately I decided this morning I will just RAID two 500gb F3's (in RAID 0) and manually back up on an additional 1tb (still thinking this through).

I've never RAID'ed before so I'd like to see what's this is like but with this being a system solely for gaming the 128Gb drive I was contemplating over wouldn't be big enough and I'm not convinced the prices for 256gb are worth it considering these will drop considerably as 1tb drives are being planned.

Everything has to be in order lol I hate not finding things

cheers

 

[Mr.Nick]

As above - yes on all counts

Steam is quite flexible really. I much prefer it to having physical media (which is annoyingly easy to misplace). It's very convenient, especially if you're an absent minded fool like myself

Agreed, my mind tends to wonder after putting something down.....

 

[dr4g0nf1y]

I've downloaded most of the games I wanted off steam recently but now have another question.

Can I just copy the steam app folder or do I go in the ''backup games'' off the file(?) tab and select them all?

I tested this with a small game but what it backed up looked different to how it's stored at the moment in the steam apps folder