Running Steam on a Flash Drive

[Can't-See J. Chimpowitz]

I'm a deviant little teenager who wants to play video games on school computers, but I'm a decent person so I don't want to waste 25GBs of data on their device. I bought a 32GB flash drive, and if anyone can help me get Steam and a copy of CSGO on it I would be grateful.

I already moved over my steam directory (minus the games other than CSGO) but when I run steam it sticks me in endless loading with the message "Extracting package..."

Also, do I need to do anything special for it to run on an account without admin?

Thanks for taking the time to help me out.

[Captain Pentium]

Go back to class.

[Can't-See J. Chimpowitz]

Originally posted by Sir Gorc:

Go back to class.

It's 6:40pm here.

[B-o-B]

Learn how to buy games, we might actually help you.
Looks exactly like no good would come of it anyway...

Coupled with Spacewars then ye..

Bill_Cosby.Jello 21 Oct @ 11:18pm
I love torrents. They've saved me $3k so far! Probably more!

It feels great to contribute nearly nothing to the industries you feed off of.
I can't imagine why anyone would pay for anything.

Nice.

[Can't-See J. Chimpowitz]

Originally posted by 2Phew™:

Learn how to buy games, we might actually help you.
Looks exactly like no good would come of it anyway...

Coupled with Spacewars then ye..

Bill_Cosby.Jello 21 Oct @ 11:18pm
I love torrents. They've saved me $3k so far! Probably more!

It feels great to contribute nearly nothing to the industries you feed off of.
I can't imagine why anyone would pay for anything.

Nice.

Thanks lol.

I wouldn't need to bother with steam for this if it didn't have to shove DRM up my ass.

[Can't-See J. Chimpowitz]

LOL that dude blocked me.

[Crystal Sharrd]

You filthy pirate,

Originally posted by Sir Gorc:

Go back to class.

[my new friend]

acf files. you need those too.

[Can't-See J. Chimpowitz]

LOL I think I got it. I did a really stupid work around.

Moving my current installation (in pieces) wouldn't work. It gave me the glitch.
Installing directly to the flash drive would not work. It gave me the glitch.
So I installed it to my desktop, then moved the fresh, untouched installation.

That did not give me the glitch.

Now all that's left is installing CSGO... that'll take some time :p

I'll report back when I finish, or if something stops me!


BTW I'm not a filthy pirate. I'm a clean one! :)


ROCK ON!

[The Giving One]

It's not recommended to have Steam/games installed on external drives.

https://support.steampowered.com/kb_article.php?ref=7418-YUBN-8129

It is not recommended that you install Steam to an external hard drive, due to potential performance issues.

As for the "P" word, I suggest you read this, please.

https://support.steampowered.com/kb_article.php?ref=4045-USHJ-3810

[Can't-See J. Chimpowitz]

Originally posted by The Giving One:

It's not recommended to have Steam/games installed on external drives.

It's running on a library computer at a highschool. Performance issues are the best I can hope for.

Originally posted by The Giving One:

As for the "P" word, I suggest you read this, please.

I have already. I figure if he's the one to bring it up, and I'm not endorsing it, I'm at least entitled to snipe back; that rude man called me filthy!

[The Giving One]

Alot of school and university computers have systems in place to block you from being able to play games on them. The idea being (big surprise) they expect you to be using them for educational purposes only.

Just so you are aware. So not only may you be dealing with the external drive issue in this case, but also admins blocking games from even playing on that school's computers. Just so you are aware what you may be up against, if problems arise.

EDIT...

https://support.steampowered.com/kb_article.php?ref=1456-EUDN-2493

Note:

Many university networks and proxies block required ports for Steam operation - please consult your network administrator to ensure the required ports are open if you are using a university network or a proxy. Ports required for Steam can not be re-mapped to HTTP or reconfigured to a custom port range.

Downloading games/playing online games eats up bandwidth. So this bandwidth is better utilized by those using the computers for education. This is just one big reason why they usually don't like to work with Steam, school computers. They like to keep bandwidth better utilized for those using the computers for school stuff.

This does not even get into the huge possible security risks that may be involved, and that network's security systems that may be causing issues and blocking access with games/Steam.

EDIT 2...AND I see the game you mentioned is CSGO. If cheats were ever installed on any one of those computers, and you did not know it, and somehow you got the game to work and connected to a VAC server with your account..........boom.....incomming VAC ban for your account.

https://support.steampowered.com/kb_article.php?ref=7849-RADZ-6869&l=english#avoidvac

"How can I ensure I don't get VAC banned?"

To ensure your account does not get VAC banned, use only trusted machines to play on VAC-Secured servers. If you are not sure whether or not the machine you are using to connect to Steam may have cheats installed, do not play on VAC-Secured servers.

[Can't-See J. Chimpowitz]

Originally posted by The Giving One:

Alot of school and university computers have systems in place to block you from being able to play games on them.

Ours don't :)

I got a usb filled with games I got for free instead of buying them on Steam. I got the idea for bringing CSGO after I got 6 buddies together all playing Nidhogg. The difference is Nidhogg is 2GBs, and I can move 2GBs onto a few computers at a time. CSGO is not quite that size.

As for blocking ports, our school board just isn't that tech savvy. Bringing in the IT guy is about as useful as pulling aside one of the dumber students to try and fix your laptop. Thanks for the help though, I figured you were finished with my "filthy" ass. :)

[Can't-See J. Chimpowitz]

Originally posted by The Giving One:

I am awesome.

+REP bro

[The Giving One]

I edited more into my post above. Sorry, and please read that also. Since you seem to state you can play the games and your school does not block access, that even more creates the situation that identifiable cheats may have already been installed on a computer by someone else before you. Just so you know. We see many cases of VAC bans where the user did not know the cheats were on the computer (internet cafe, for example). VAC does not care.

Identifiable cheat detected = VAC ban.

[Can't-See J. Chimpowitz]

Originally posted by The Giving One:

Identifiable cheat detected = VAC ban.

Pretty sure the computers are clean. Next to nobody else games at my school, most of the 'gamers' are console peasants anyway. Plus I know I'm the only one who'd bother with getting CSGO running. All that considered, I still probably won't be on VAC servers; the point of this was to get a flash drive I could run alongside my external HDD, which I know already works, that way I can have a little 1v1 LAN with buddies. The plan was to have 2v2 or more, but the local tech shop only had one 32GB flash drive, and it was expensive as ♥♥♥♥ too.

Thanks for your help dude.

Rock on!