Steam on Portable Hard Drive??

[terrornoodle]

So I've recently converted a flash drive to a hard drive which works as an auxiliary storage device for some of my games. I was wondering if it were possible to install steam on it as well and play games solely off of the converted flash drive, without steam even being installed on my pc. Please reply with advice/suggestions :)

[Gwarsbane]

As far as I know, no, because parts of steam have to be in windows registry and installed in the windows folder. Also there is the fact that many games still look to put save files and stuff into the documents folder on the c drive.

[terrornoodle]

So, in theory, I could, but I would just leave little traces of games and files on the computers I use the portable steam with?

[Gwarsbane]

Originally posted by terrornoodle:

So, in theory, I could, but I would just leave little traces of games and files on the computers I use the portable steam with?

You would more then likely have to install steam on every single computer you use the portable drive with. With the program itself being installed on the portable drive.

And the portable drive would have to have the same drive letter for each one or else you might end up having to reinstall each game each time you wanted to play them.

And every time you plugged it in, it would more then likely need updates for steam and games. but not positive on it.

All you can really do it just give it a try. And yes it will leave parts of steam and the games on those computers.

Also for the games to be playable you have to have a fast connection, so at the minimum I would use USB3

[JPMcMillen]

The only way this would work is if Steam had required developers to put every last byte of data (including config and save data) inside the Steam folder. Then all file paths could branch off from the main Steam folder.

[spartan119990]

my games are all only on solid state drives, save files and everything, I NEVER let steam put or install ANYTHING on local disk c, it is only a 240gb ssd and just with windows on it it is 99% full.

[Gwarsbane]

Originally posted by spartan119990:

my games are all only on solid state drives, save files and everything, I NEVER let steam put or install ANYTHING on local disk c, it is only a 240gb ssd and just with windows on it it is 99% full.

Steam itself might only be on something other the the C drive, but many games save their files to the different places on the c drive, usually in the user folder under My Documents or My Games or Saved Games. And some times they are buried under a few folders.

It would be nice if every single game maker put their saved files into a save folder in the steam folder, but it just does not happen sadly.

If I were you, I would take a look in
C:\Users\Username
And look at the folders/links that I mentioned above.

There is also
C:\Users\Username\AppData\Local\

And I'm sure there are lots of other places that the save games have been put.

Its quite annoying. And yes I install my Steam somewhere other then the C drive also.

[jtrent238]

Here ya go: https://github.com/jtrent238/SteamPortable