STEAM : Backup entire collection ?

[FatRakoon]

Is there a simple way that I can backup my entire Steam collection?

I have done collections like all my HalfLife stuff in one lot and then all my Doom stuff in another then Dawn Of War in another and so on, but I have over 400 games that need doing and frankly, its a ball ache and is simpler to just re-download most of them.

But If I could perhaps have a script that maybe I could edit, or if there is some stand alone app that may help???

Then again, I also want it on the Mac and Linux too come to think of it, so within steam woudl be easier, or is the way provided the only way?

 

[ANDARIAL]

i use the Backup option in the steam app.works fine for me when i have wanted to reinstall.
point it to an external drive for safety and away i go

 

[smogsy]

Simple use steam backup function

OR

Game Data:
copy - E:\SteamLibrary\steamapps\common to second location

Saves
copy C:\Users\smogs\Documents to second location

quick batch script for you

set /A save_location= C:\Users\smogs\Documents\
set /A save_backup_location= Z:\save_backup\

set /A game_data_drive_1=E:\SteamLibrary\steamapps\common\
set /A game_data_drive_2=D:\SteamLibrary\steamapps\common\
set /A game_data_backup=Z:\game_backlup\

echo backing up save data
copy %save_location% %save_backup_location%

echo Copying data from %game_data_drive_1% drive

copy %game_data_drive_1% %game_data_backup%

echo copying data from %game_data_drive_2% Drive

copy %game_data_drive_2% %game_data_backup%

 

[theone8181]

I can see the save data being tricky as most games save in the cloud but not all.

 

[smogsy]

I can see the save data being tricky as most games save in the cloud but not all.

most save in your documents folder as well as the cloud -> docs -> cloud

 

[Guest2]

As smogsy said.

The last time I manually backed up games, I backed up the \steamapps\common folder and C:\Users\%username%\Documents

 

[Holst1981]

I just swapped my steam drive for a larger one.

Copied the entire contents to my backup drive.

Swapped the drives and kept the drive letter and name the same.
Copied the old drive contents to the new drive.

Rebooted and put my steam password in and everything works as before.

 

[FatRakoon]

Thanks guys.
The idea of simply copying the entire lot was NOT quite what I meant.

I did mean the steam way in how it saves as an archived file.

However, I had been piddling about with that way, and I realised something that with some of the games, is a very important "feature".
It only saves the default files.

For some of the games, for example UnReal Tournament and Doom and Quake and Dawn of War etc etc etc, they all have extra maps and levels and so on, and NONE of these actually get saved!!!

For example, my UnReal Tournament GOTY folder is 1.5GB and when I backed it up, the saved backup was under 500MB

I uninstalled teh game and there was still about 1.1GB in the folder... I have obviously backed up the entire folder, but I saw that the extra maps and music etc was not saved... I deleted the whole folder and restored it but the levels were all gone.

So, yeah, the ONLY choice really is to do the normal steam backup, but then uninstall the game, and then ZIP the rest of the folder so that these extra files will be saved too!

So, I might as well cut out the nonsense and just do a normal copy.

And so yeah, the Common folder is what I will and thats what I have been doing all this time anyway.

I also found out that this also helps with the Linux and the Mac versions too.... The Data files are all teh same and so you often find, that these dont need to be re-downloaded all the time, just the files necessary for Linux or Mac to run the game.

So bugger it. I will just keep doing it the way I have always done it. I like Smogsy's Script however. its the same as my BAT file, but I have simply done it directly, where his uses SET.

Thanks guys.

 

[chroniclard]

Is it actually worth backing up all the games? Guess it depends how fast your BB is.....a 10gig game takes a few minutes for me.

 

[Disco_P]

Just backup your steamapps folders and use game save manager for save games. The steamapps folder has the appmanifest files which tell steam everything it needs to know without scanning game files (useful for saving time and modded games)

 

[arknor]

Is it actually worth backing up all the games? Guess it depends how fast your BB is.....a 10gig game takes a few minutes for me.

op must really like inviting people around to show off his gaming collection.

personally I very rarely have more than 3 games installed at any one time

 

[theone8181]

op must really like inviting people around to show off his gaming collection.

personally I very rarely have more than 3 games installed at any one time

I've got maybe a dozen installed, but that's so I don't forget which ones I've not played yet.

 

[smogsy]

Thanks guys.
The idea of simply copying the entire lot was NOT quite what I meant.

I did mean the steam way in how it saves as an archived file.

However, I had been piddling about with that way, and I realised something that with some of the games, is a very important "feature".
It only saves the default files.

For some of the games, for example UnReal Tournament and Doom and Quake and Dawn of War etc etc etc, they all have extra maps and levels and so on, and NONE of these actually get saved!!!

For example, my UnReal Tournament GOTY folder is 1.5GB and when I backed it up, the saved backup was under 500MB

I uninstalled teh game and there was still about 1.1GB in the folder... I have obviously backed up the entire folder, but I saw that the extra maps and music etc was not saved... I deleted the whole folder and restored it but the levels were all gone.

So, yeah, the ONLY choice really is to do the normal steam backup, but then uninstall the game, and then ZIP the rest of the folder so that these extra files will be saved too!

So, I might as well cut out the nonsense and just do a normal copy.

And so yeah, the Common folder is what I will and thats what I have been doing all this time anyway.

I also found out that this also helps with the Linux and the Mac versions too.... The Data files are all teh same and so you often find, that these dont need to be re-downloaded all the time, just the files necessary for Linux or Mac to run the game.

So bugger it. I will just keep doing it the way I have always done it. I like Smogsy's Script however. its the same as my BAT file, but I have simply done it directly, where his uses SET.

Thanks guys.

Benefits of using set is makes it super simple to expand and change variables in one place vs many. Later on before it becomes a bemonth script.



Feel free to reach out of you need more complex setups or scripts

I know quite a few programming languages so could knock up something more advanced if needed.

Example you may want to loop through all your drives or maybe want to copy into compressed folder formats to save space (not zip) but Windows compression system

 

[Semple]

Is there a simple way that I can backup my entire Steam collection?

I have done collections like all my HalfLife stuff in one lot and then all my Doom stuff in another then Dawn Of War in another and so on, but I have over 400 games that need doing and frankly, its a ball ache and is simpler to just re-download most of them.

But If I could perhaps have a script that maybe I could edit, or if there is some stand alone app that may help???

Then again, I also want it on the Mac and Linux too come to think of it, so within steam woudl be easier, or is the way provided the only way?

Do you have slow internet?

I used to backup all my games when I had 2Mb broadband, as it would take the best part of a day to download a game, so backup was the only viable option.

Nowadays most decent connections can download the games in minutes, which is far quicker than reading from an external disk, and you don't need to store them

 

[gpuerrilla]

I used to backup all my games when I had 2Mb broadband, as it would take the best part of a day to download a game, so backup was the only viable option.

My last three games have all been above 75Gb and would take way longer than that on my connection! Sadly its a new reality for me as years ago we lived in a test area where virgin used to let you have double the bandwidth for free on their rollouts.

 

[FatRakoon]

My Internet is not that slow, not that bad. Im currently on Fibre78 and getting mostly around the 50-55 and any day now I am going to be able to go 1000 apparently, according to the guys who were doing the updates on the cables, and Vodafone ( My phone/Web provider )

Its not the speed.

You missunderstood my thought.

Sure, I currently simply copy the entire folder and that does a grand job for me.
I have in the past used Second Copy as this allows me to backup only the newer or changed files and not have to copy every file and still have up to date files.

This is NOT a problem.

What I just wanted to do, was to have them backed up like the Steam backup does, and it archives them into sort of disk images, so that was what I wanted, but then I realised that it only does the basic files and not any extra files like the downloaded ones.

So, even just re-loading the files from the internet does not get around this issue and so other files like maps and other such files will get lost if I did it that way.

It was just a thought and so I realised that how I was doing it anyway, is the best method of doing it.

And as I said, I do this for my Windows, Linux and Macs and so I have to downlaod 3 times.

 

[smogsy]

@Semple @FatRakoon agree with above whe i had 500MB up & 500MB down i would download delete & install on the same day few minutes & id have any game in my collection.

Now i moved i have 55Mbps with a 4 person family Watching Netflix/Disney + Me gaming

Netflix is OK as it reduces qaulity, But Disney will just plain stop working if you dont give it 3MB/S plus... which means my download canonly be 3MB/s or less if i want to browse too!