Steam has stealth DRM on uninstall nowadays

AWPC · 17 May 2015 at 09:54

Friendly warning to anyone who like me thought I could uninstall Steam from another partition then copy my library back over

Just lost 900GB as it has DRM on it so looks for where the files are installed & deletes the lot of them even though I moved them all beforehand as that used to work :rolleyes:

When you uninstall Steam now it checks for the library & deletes the lot :eek:

this is ontop of it doing the usual ownership check if you move the files back after for every single game. Valve appear to have applied the encryption to your entire library not just certain games anymore

Amnesia · 17 May 2015 at 10:06

i dont quite get it, you wanted to put steam on another partition but used the uninstall ?

Why didnt you just cut and paste your steam folder to the new location.

bledd · 17 May 2015 at 10:08

No need to unistall, just stop steam them move it.

stopper · 17 May 2015 at 10:24

AWPC said:
Just lost 900GB as it has DRM on it

It isn't a DRM issue, Steam just knew where your files were when you chose to uninstall it.
Mistake on your own part, I'm afraid.

Calm · 17 May 2015 at 10:26

So basically the Steam uninstaller works better than it used to!! :eek:

elmuzzy66. · 17 May 2015 at 10:27

Maybe i reading it wrong but didn't steam do what you asked? Every time I have uninstalled steam its deleted all games on it as well.

FrenchTart · 17 May 2015 at 10:38

I heard linux has stealth DRM when you rm -rf / too

Gimpymoo · 17 May 2015 at 10:45

elmuzzy66. said:
Maybe i reading it wrong but didn't steam do what you asked? Every time I have uninstalled steam its deleted all games on it as well.

Yes, this is true.

Op, I am confused by the reasoning for your post :confused:

ED209 · 17 May 2015 at 10:52

I have my steam library on a second ssd and steam installed on my main OS SSD.

if I format my OS on re install all I need to do is install steam and then add a ne library and all my games are back

Destination · 17 May 2015 at 11:40

OP uninstalled steam expecting his games to still be there for later, whoopsie, lots of downloading ahead!

Witcher1979 · 17 May 2015 at 11:43

FrenchTart said:
I heard linux has stealth DRM when you rm -rf / too

ROFL, but isn't it just rm -f or has it changed, not used linux in a fair few months now.

mortals · 17 May 2015 at 11:46

AWPC said:
Friendly warning to anyone who like me thought I could uninstall Steam from another partition then copy my library back over

Just lost 900GB as it has DRM on it so looks for where the files are installed & deletes the lot of them even though I moved them all beforehand as that used to work

When you uninstall Steam now it checks for the library & deletes the lot this is ontop of it doing the usual ownership check if you move the files back after for every single game. Valve appear to have applied the encryption to your entire library not just certain games anymore

interested in this undocumented steam library encryption
also "omg uninstaller deletes files, must be drm" :confused:

AWPC · 17 May 2015 at 11:54

What all the wise people commenting here :rolleyes:

fail to understand even though I put it in the OP is it was on another "PARTITION" why or even would Steam include that when its another Steam install (I have several on different OS partitions).

But anyhow lost little data as most of it I could recover instantly using an unerase utility as the System Library HD had not been overwritten

FrenchTart · 17 May 2015 at 11:56

Witcher1979 said:
ROFL, but isn't it just rm -f or has it changed, not used linux in a fair few months now.

The extra R makes it a recursive delete

MonkeyBasher · 17 May 2015 at 12:00

How does anything in this thread have anything to do with any DRM at all, ever?

mortals · 17 May 2015 at 12:02

AWPC said:
What all the wise people commenting here fail to understand even though I put it in the OP is it was on another "PARTITION" why or even would Steam include that when its another Steam install (I have several on different OS partitions).

Makes a little more sense now

Altho doesn't seem like encryption or stealth

So uninstalling steam now removes all libraries wherever they are, but that sort of makes sense in that steam is a dependency for running the games :confused:

(the dependency bit is what makes steam drm but what is this new stealth drm?)

Amnesia · 17 May 2015 at 13:43

AWPC said:
But anyhow lost little data as most of it I could recover instantly using an unerase utility as the System Library HD had not been overwritten

good that you managed to recover your data...900gb isn't something i'd want to lose.
but next time just do a cut and paste

you dont even have to install steam again...just run the steam.exe from that location and it will update itself.

arknor · 17 May 2015 at 13:48

lol op steam is drm, always amazes me when people don't see it.

You can't play your games without steam the same way you couldn't without starforce.
it's just packaged with a friendly face

Woden · 17 May 2015 at 13:53

arknor said:
lol op steam is drm, always amazes me when people don't see it.

You can't play your games without steam the same way you couldn't without starforce.
it's just packaged with a friendly face

This is what confused me. We ask know Steam is DRM so I don't understand the OPs outrage.

We just accept it because it is DRM done right.

Witcher1979 · 17 May 2015 at 13:57

FrenchTart said:
The extra R makes it a recursive delete

Ahhhhh kk