If I format my SSD with OS on it do I have to reinstall my games on my secondary HDD?

[Alpha]

I want to format my SSD and do a fresh windows install on it. I also have a 2TB HDD as my secondary storage. If I format my SSD and do a fresh Windows install on it do I have to Format the 2TB HDD or can I just keep my Steam games on it?

[B-o-B]

No need to format 2TB

Moving a Steam Installation and Games
https://support.steampowered.com/kb_article.php?ref=7418-YUBN-8129&l=
Move or make a backup of the Appmanifest .acf file associated with the game also.


Install steam on new drive
1. Move steamapps and userdata folders to another Drive
2. Uninstall Steam
3. Install Steam on new drive/SSD
4. Move userdata folder to new Steam folder (Overwrite EVERYTHING)
5. Create new Steam Library on HDD
6. Move Steamapps folder to new folder on your SSD/HDD

[ShelLuser]

Originally posted by Onion:

I want to format my SSD and do a fresh windows install on it. I also have a 2TB HDD as my secondary storage. If I format my SSD and do a fresh Windows install on it do I have to Format the 2TB HDD or can I just keep my Steam games on it?

First.. Windows 10 always allows you to do a system reset; so it will bring the OS back to its factory defaults and you can even chose if you want to keep your personal files or not. That might be a better (or cleaner) alternative here.

But yah, you can just leave the 2Tb alone and when you're done you should be able to re-install the Steam client to the same physical location. You may need to verify some installed games but it should work without having to download everything.