Utility to move STEAM games to other partitions

Old Man · 15 Jan 2011 at 02:28

I was given the information on where to find this, so I can't take any credit for it but I wanted to pass on the link (utility will not work with XP though):

http://www.traynier.com/software/steammover

NeoVo · 15 Jan 2011 at 03:01

Looks interesting, might be useful for having my most played games on my SSD with optimum loading speeds.

dmx07 · 15 Jan 2011 at 07:44

Also, Google 'game save manager', very handy tool...

orderoftheflame · 15 Jan 2011 at 09:28

dmx07 said:
Also, Google 'game save manager', very handy tool...

Or click this handy link!

http://gsm.duncsweb.com/

tomos · 15 Jan 2011 at 09:30

you can just cut and paste a steam folder, delete files/folders bar steam.exe and the steamapps folder, run steam.exe and it sets it all back up for ya.

just did it and it worked fine for me

orderoftheflame · 15 Jan 2011 at 09:52

tomos said:
you can just cut and paste a steam folder, delete files/folders bar steam.exe and the steamapps folder, run steam.exe and it sets it all back up for ya.

just did it and it worked fine for me

Doesn't really help what people are doing here though does it.

This is to move individual games, not Steam as a whole.

Kenai · 15 Jan 2011 at 09:55

tomos said:
you can just cut and paste a steam folder, delete files/folders bar steam.exe and the steamapps folder, run steam.exe and it sets it all back up for ya.

just did it and it worked fine for me

Not that that is what people are trying to do with the above programs but even so, there is no need to delete anying.

Just copy and paste the whole lot and then run the Steam.exe again, that's all that needs to be done if you're just moving Steam to a new drive / system.

No installing, no deleting of certain things etc. etc. People on here make such a simple operation overly complicated

Hedge · 15 Jan 2011 at 10:29

Kenai ,

Tomos is using the method that valve/steam website actually says to use. He ain't being complicated he's just following instructions

tomos · 15 Jan 2011 at 11:32

thank you hedge :cool:

Kenai · 15 Jan 2011 at 12:00

Hedge said:
Kenai ,

Tomos is using the method that valve/steam website actually says to use. He ain't being complicated he's just following instructions

Doesn't change the fact it's a waste of time and effort though

Exergy · 15 Jan 2011 at 20:45

You can move individual games easily:

1) Close steam
2) Make a folder for your steam game files on the new harddrive
2) Go to your steam folder, then steamapps, then common.
3) Find the game you want to move, cut and paste the folder into the new steam folder on your new drive.
4) Open a command prompt and type the following command:

mklink /J "original directory" "new directory"

For example, my steam is installed to my C drive and I move games which dont require the benefit of my SSD to my mass storage E drive.

mklink /J "C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\common\torchlight" "E:\Games\Steam\steamapps\common\torchlight"

5) Open steam, and ensure the game still works.

This works by creating a symbolic junction between the two folders, windows (and steam) see the new folder as if it were located in the original directory.

I personally just put together a quick batch script which does the above automatically when i decide I want to move a game off my SSD.

Evilsod · 15 Jan 2011 at 20:51

Why use a batch script when you could just dl the GameSaveManager order linked which does the same thing and also backs up save files?

Exergy · 15 Jan 2011 at 20:57

Because I don't want to use an unnecessary program when I can do the same thing in half the time without it.

Xelene · 15 Jan 2011 at 21:13

Exergy said:
You can move individual games easily:

1) Close steam
2) Make a folder for your steam game files on the new harddrive
2) Go to your steam folder, then steamapps, then common.
3) Find the game you want to move, cut and paste the folder into the new steam folder on your new drive.
4) Open a command prompt and type the following command:

mklink /J "original directory" "new directory"

For example, my steam is installed to my C drive and I move games which dont require the benefit of my SSD to my mass storage E drive.

mklink /J "C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\common\torchlight" "E:\Games\Steam\steamapps\common\torchlight"

5) Open steam, and ensure the game still works.

This works by creating a symbolic junction between the two folders, windows (and steam) see the new folder as if it were located in the original directory.

I personally just put together a quick batch script which does the above automatically when i decide I want to move a game off my SSD.

Folder2Junction adds a context menu to explorer that does the same thing.

Bubo · 28 Jan 2011 at 11:28

Would it make sense to do this the other way round? I.e. when you first install steam put it onto the hdd and download all your games. Then use the symbolic link procedure to move the few games that will benefit from an ssd onto the ssd as and when? I remember reading somewhere that Source games keep some files in a separate steam folder which is not so easy to fiddle with, so doing it this way ensures that none of that is ever on the ssd. This is different to the procedure described above which appears to be based on moving games off the ssd which you don't want on.

Evilsod · 28 Jan 2011 at 11:35

Er, isn't that what everyone normally does? I don't know anyone who would install steam onto an SSD then move everything bar 1 or 2 titles off it, not to mention the problems you could face with disc space.

Bubo · 28 Jan 2011 at 12:19

Evilsod said:
I don't know anyone who would install steam onto an SSD then move everything bar 1 or 2 titles off it, not to mention the problems you could face with disc space.

Check the post above mine, Exergy seems to have installed steam to its default location, i.e. c:\program files. So that's one chap you now know of who has put steam itself onto the ssd.