Creating a second Steam library on the same drive

[Tinasbuddy]

Im trying to create a new steam library on my only SSD to install skyrim on because a modpack im installing requires it not to be under program files but when ever i try i get the error msg;

"selected drive already has a steam library folder. steam will manage multiple game installs in a single folder for you"

how would i go about circumventing this and just forcing steam to let me create a second library on my c drive?

[Large Tomatoes]

I very much doubt Steam will let you install the same game twice anyway, even if you have multiple drives associated.

I use multiple drives for my steam library, all it lets you do is select the drive. What you could do is add a new drive and use one for the OS and one for games, this would install the game outside of Program Files. Alternatively if a secondary drive isn't possible, you could partition your drive. There are loads of tools out there that will allow you to do this without reinstalling Windows, Windows even has this functionality built-in, albeit very limited.

Something which I haven't tried but might work is to manually move the game to a different directory, of course you will need to add it back into Steam if you want to launch it via Steam. 'Add a Non-Steam Game'.

[Tinasbuddy]

Originally posted by nodnol:

I very much doubt Steam will let you install the same game twice anyway, even if you have multiple drives associated.

I use multiple drives for my steam library, all it lets you do is select the drive. What you could do is add a new drive and use one for the OS and one for games, this would install the game outside of Program Files. Alternatively if a secondary drive isn't possible, you could partition your drive. There are loads of tools out there that will allow you to do this without reinstalling Windows, Windows even has this functionality built-in, albeit very limited.

Something which I haven't tried but might work is to manually move the game to a different directory, of course you will need to add it back into Steam if you want to launch it via Steam. 'Add a Non-Steam Game'.

im not trying to install the same game twice, i just dont want it in a path that contains program files in it, and the modpack install guide says it needs to be a fresh install that has never been in programfiles

[ShelLuser]

I've been modding Skyrim quite a lot and I have never come across a mod that tracked its location. It also makes little sense because any datafiles should end up in your personal folder anyway.

What mod is this all about? Sounds like a bug to me on first impression.

[Large Tomatoes]

Originally posted by Tinasbuddy:

im not trying to install the same game twice, i just dont want it in a path that contains program files in it, and the modpack install guide says it needs to be a fresh install that has never been in programfiles

OK - so then you will either need a separate game drive, create a secondary partition on the same drive, or try the manual move like I said. Depending on how the mod checks for this stuff will determine the complexity of the manual move. For example, you might need to dig around in the registry looking for references and updating them.

The last option is either going to be the easiest or most painful depending on how comfortable you are tweaking bits 'n' bobs.

Edit....... hold

I've just had a look at the Steam settings, so it turns out you can specify a custom folder for the games, but you can only have one per drive as we already know. I'm wondering if you can remove your existing library then create a new folder outside of Program Files and use that. The problem here might be that Steam will refuse to delete the library if it is the only one.

If the above doesn't work, then a secondary drive, partition, or manual hacky-move might be the only other options.

[Tinasbuddy]

Originally posted by ShelLuser:

I've been modding Skyrim quite a lot and I have never come across a mod that tracked its location. It also makes little sense because any datafiles should end up in your personal folder anyway.

What mod is this all about? Sounds like a bug to me on first impression.

it doesnt track the location it just cant be installed under programfiles,programfiles 64x, documents, or desktop

[Tinasbuddy]

Originally posted by nodnol:

Originally posted by Tinasbuddy:

im not trying to install the same game twice, i just dont want it in a path that contains program files in it, and the modpack install guide says it needs to be a fresh install that has never been in programfiles

OK - so then you will either need a separate game drive, create a secondary partition on the same drive, or try the manual move like I said. Depending on how the mod checks for this stuff will determine the complexity of the manual move. For example, you might need to dig around in the registry looking for references and updating them.

The last option is either going to be the easiest or most painful depending on how comfortable you are tweaking bits 'n' bobs.

Edit....... hold

I've just had a look at the Steam settings, so it turns out you can specify a custom folder for the games, but you can only have one per drive as we already know. I'm wondering if you can remove your existing library then create a new folder outside of Program Files and use that. The problem here might be that Steam will refuse to delete the library if it is the only one.

If the above doesn't work, then a secondary drive, partition, or manual hacky-move might be the only other options.

thanks for your help but i think im just going buy a external ssd and put it on there, i need one anyway

[Large Tomatoes]

Originally posted by Tinasbuddy:

thanks for your help but i think im just going buy a external ssd and put it on there, i need one anyway

Yeah, I mean that is essentially a second drive, right? A word of caution, I'm sure this is known anyway. but I wouldn't like to see you fall foul if you didn't. External SSDs connected via USB will be a lot slower than the same drive installed internally, the maximum theoretical speed of USB will never be achieved. An M.2 NVMe SSD connected to Thunderbolt or USB4 will be good though, obviously the M.2 NVMe installed internally would be faster still, but Thunderbolt has enough bandwidth to not be detrimental to performance.

I bought this one for my laptop and it has been great.

https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B08FT59SB6

[ShelLuser]

Originally posted by Tinasbuddy:

Originally posted by ShelLuser:

I've been modding Skyrim quite a lot and I have never come across a mod that tracked its location. It also makes little sense because any datafiles should end up in your personal folder anyway.

What mod is this all about? Sounds like a bug to me on first impression.

it doesnt track the location it just cant be installed under programfiles,programfiles 64x, documents, or desktop

That makes 0 sense unless it tracks the location. What mod installer are you using anyway? Because I think you're looking for causes in the wrong places.

[Tinasbuddy]

Originally posted by ShelLuser:

Originally posted by Tinasbuddy:

it doesnt track the location it just cant be installed under programfiles,programfiles 64x, documents, or desktop

That makes 0 sense unless it tracks the location. What mod installer are you using anyway? Because I think you're looking for causes in the wrong places.

it CAN be installed under thoes locations, the mods just wont work properly according to the creator of the pack

[ShelLuser]

Originally posted by Tinasbuddy:

it CAN be installed under thoes locations, the mods just wont work properly according to the creator of the pack

So once again: what mod are we talking about, what mod installer do you use?

And do you have anything to back up this wild claim or did you just go with it? I wouldn't take such claims on face value.

[Tinasbuddy]

Originally posted by ShelLuser:

Originally posted by Tinasbuddy:

it CAN be installed under thoes locations, the mods just wont work properly according to the creator of the pack

So once again: what mod are we talking about, what mod installer do you use?

And do you have anything to back up this wild claim or did you just go with it? I wouldn't take such claims on face value.

idk why your fighting me on this, what if i just decided "hey it would be cool if i just had 2 libraries on one drive" and i wanted to know how?

im using wabbajack, its a collection of over 1000 mods so i dont know what specific mods are included.

[Stellar Remnant]

Originally posted by Tinasbuddy:

Im trying to create a new steam library on my only SSD to install skyrim on because a modpack im installing requires it not to be under program files but when ever i try i get the error msg;

"selected drive already has a steam library folder. steam will manage multiple game installs in a single folder for you"

how would i go about circumventing this and just forcing steam to let me create a second library on my c drive?

Just copy (or move) the Skyrim folder elsewhere on that drive. Steam doesn't care where it is.

[ShelLuser]

Originally posted by Tinasbuddy:

idk why your fighting me on this

I'm not, I'm trying to get some information that we can actually use to get to the bottom of this whole thing to hopefully present you with a better solution. Because as I mentioned above: I never heard of a mod that couldn't be used in a specific location.

The only reason I can come up with wrt "Program files" is because this is usually a protected folder where you need to elevate your privileges before you can write anything there, that would also apply to mods. However, that has nothing to do with the mods not being able to work there, but rather their file permissions. Which you could easily change yourself. Not to mention that this only happens on the system drive. On any other drive other than C "program files" won't be protected.


Which is why I think that your issue isn't as problematic as you think. You wouldn't need a 2nd library but rather change the folder permissions of your game or mod folder.

(edit)

Not to mention... It seems "Wabbajack" is a mod installer[www.wabbajack.org]. If they can't work out their stuff within Steam then I'd be looking out for a better mod manager because, this whole thing is bogus.

My pick would be the Vortex mod installer[www.nexusmods.com], though I have to admit that "my trust has been shaken". No, not by any political nonsense but the bottom "More mods" bar at the bottom of the mods list. It's annoying IMO.

Doesn't change the fact that Vortex can do it all, both mods from the Nexus website as well as any 3rd pary mod you can throw at it.

[Tharon]

You can trick the system by unsing a NTFS Junction point on a USB pendrive.

Plug a Usb pendrive (size doesn't matter) on your PC. You should have a D: drive (or some other drive letter).

Now enter in the prompt (CMD command) and type :

mklink /J D:\Steam C:\NewSteamFolder

Now every read or write operation to D:\Steam folder is redirected to C:\NewSteamFolder, so you can have two Steam library on the same disk, but Steam will recognize them as being on two different disks. This will work until you remove the USB pendrive.

[Large Tomatoes]

Originally posted by Tharon:

You can trick the system by unsing a NTFS Junction point on a USB pendrive.

Plug a Usb pendrive (size doesn't matter) on your PC. You should have a D: drive (or some other drive letter).

Now enter in the prompt (CMD command) and type :

mklink /J D:\Steam C:\NewSteamFolder

Now every read or write operation to D:\Steam folder is redirected to C:\NewSteamFolder, so you can have two Steam library on the same disk, but Steam will recognize them as being on two different disks. This will work until you remove the USB pendrive.

Interesting, are NTFS junctions the Windows equivalent of a symlink?