Taking steam elsewhere on external HD

[PapaLazaru]

Hi chaps.

Got a couple of noob questions, to which I think I already know the answers, but am not one hundred percent sure!

Basically I am housesitting at my old mans house from Wednesday night to Sunday. He has an ok Dell PC (7800gt in it).

Most of my Steam file is backed up onto an external Samsung HD.

Questions -

1. I assume all I will have to do run Steam.exe from the external HD to get it to work on his PC? Or will I have to download and install Steaminstall.msi to his PC?

2. I have a couple of games recently downloaded and installed on my main games HD, which are not on the external HD. Do I just need to copy over the .ncf game files for each game?

Thanks in advance.

 

[linktoinsanity]

Questions -

1. I assume all I will have to do run Steam.exe from the external HD to get it to work on his PC? Or will I have to download and install Steaminstall.msi to his PC?

2. I have a couple of games recently downloaded and installed on my main games HD, which are not on the external HD. Do I just need to copy over the .ncf game files for each game?

1. In theory yes, but I've always had problems when doing this and had to install Steam using the Steam.msi. Others report that just running Steam.exe works fine for them tho, in which case you should be ok.

2. Go into common as well and copy those folders as well. Common is situated in the same folder as the ncf files.

 

[bledd]

imo

no point in 'backing up' the steam files as such, just copy the whole steam directory to another drive

 

[PapaLazaru]

1. In theory yes, but I've always had problems when doing this and had to install Steam using the Steam.msi. Others report that just running Steam.exe works fine for them tho, in which case you should be ok.

2. Go into common as well and copy those folders as well. Common is situated in the same folder as the ncf files.

Cheers will get that done. The good thing is that if I miss anything small, Steam will sort itself out by downloading them again.

imo

no point in 'backing up' the steam files as such, just copy the whole steam directory to another drive

Yeah that is what I did. Just copied over the whole thing. Quite worringly massive these days, even though I only play a handful of games on there.

 

[PapaLazaru]

Right chaps I have hit a snag. I copied over my entire Steam file a few weeks back but it does not appear to be on the external drive. I was quite possibly inebriated on vodka at the time of the transfer so could have easily mucked it up somehow.

It is going to take too long to copy over the whole file, so does anyone know what folder, apart from the .ncf files I need to copy over, to take some of my games with me?

 

[Gimpymoo]

Copy the game folders from (for example)
x:\Program Files\Steam\steamapps\common

Obviously, only copy across the ones you wish to take with you.

MOST of the games will be in there, HOWEVER, Source and a few other games will be in:
x:\Program Files\Steam\steamapps\%steam user%

When you install Steam on the other computer, copy the folders back into the same location.

When running for the first time, Steam may verify the cache and download additional files if needed, but on the whole, any download should be relatively small in size.

If you have an internet connection where your going, I would not backup up the .ncf files but obviously if your concerned, back them up.

In theory yes, but I've always had problems when doing this and had to install Steam using the Steam.msi. Others report that just running Steam.exe works fine for them tho, in which case you should be ok.

This method used to work for me but for a while now, I have needed to run the full installer.

May have been since I switched to Windows 7 thinking about it..? Maybe just coincidence.

 

[PapaLazaru]

Cheers Gimpy.

So just the files for the games I want to play from the common folder? I can ignore the .ncf files?

His boradband connection is pretty good so am not obhtered about a few updates. Only taking some basic games with me anyway.

 

[bledd]

Just install PvZ, tiny

 

[Gzero]

Copy the game folders from (for example)
x:\Program Files\Steam\steamapps\common

Obviously, only copy across the ones you wish to take with you.

MOST of the games will be in there, HOWEVER, Source and a few other games will be in:
x:\Program Files\Steam\steamapps\%steam user%

When you install Steam on the other computer, copy the folders back into the same location.

When running for the first time, Steam may verify the cache and download additional files if needed, but on the whole, any download should be relatively small in size.

If you have an internet connection where your going, I would not backup up the .ncf files but obviously if your concerned, back them up.



This method used to work for me but for a while now, I have needed to run the full installer.

May have been since I switched to Windows 7 thinking about it..? Maybe just coincidence.

I can still get away with running the steam.exe, but you need to run it as administrator so steam can install it's silent service.

 

[MeMeMeMe]

This method used to work for me but for a while now, I have needed to run the full installer.

May have been since I switched to Windows 7 thinking about it..? Maybe just coincidence.

It's do to the way file permissions have changed in vista and Win7.
You do need to run the install once, but it's no big hassle.

I can still get away with running the steam.exe, but you need to run it as administrator so steam can install it's silent service.

By doing the install once, after changing locations, you don't need to run as administrator any more.

 

[Gzero]

By doing the install once, after changing locations, you don't need to run as administrator any more.

Yeah forgot to mention that.