Synchronizing steamapps folder?

Caporegime
Joined
8 Mar 2007
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Surrey
Ok, some background. I have a PC that is used pretty much exclusively for gaming since I got my tablet. I don't game every day and my PC is off for most of the time. Most of my games are on Steam.

The problem with this is that when I do want to game and turn on my PC there is always updates that need to be downloaded. With a 2mb internet line this gets tedious.

I have a server that is on all the time running WHSv1. Is there any way I can use this to download the updates?

I know I can't log into Steam on both machines at the same time, but how about setting it to log into Steam at 1am, it downloads all my updates, and then closes Steam at 5pm so that I can log in on my PC if I need to. Then set my PC to sync the contents of the steamapps folder off my Server and into my PC whenever it boots? Or whenever I start Steam?

Would this work? Is the contents of the steamapps folder enough? Would it complain about being potentially half downloaded on another machine? Also how does it play with save games? Where are they stored? Am I going to risk overwriting my save games by doing this?
 
Has nobody else faced this problem?

The only time my PC is really on is when I'm playing games, and Steam pauses downloads then. It means I build up a queue of files that need downloading, and end up having to wait for updates before being able to play games :(
 
You can tab back into Steam and force the downloads to resume.
...and yes, is it pretty shocking that after all this time of adding loads of crap into Steam they still haven't included fundamental options like the ability to turn off downloading pausing when starting games. Like you I have a crappy connection so I can't afford to have it sat idle.
 
Maybe, but I expect its difficult (or in some cases impossible) for Steam to be able to tell if you are playing Single Player or Online.

I just want to know if copying the steamapps folder from one machine to another, potentially with half finished downloads in it, is going to cause issues?
 
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