Steam library on a portable device "e.g Hardrive"

[Numerose]

So I ran out of space on my computer, yay, and went and started installing and moving everything onto a portable hardrive. This worked really well, until I unplugged the hardrive. Now steam is telling me to reinstall everything.

-How do I get it to actually search through my computer to make sure it isn't missing anything?
-Or how do I configure steam to run it's software on any computer (so long as I'm logged into my account), and keep the library portable?

[Phantom]

External hard-drives are already problematic due to performance issues.

This is not the bigger problem as they tend to disconnect and re-connect.

Thus, your games will appear as uninstalled.

If i were you, i would work on trying to get some more space in my main internal drive.

[Numerose]

Originally posted by fauxtronic:

Originally posted by Numerose:

So I ran out of space on my computer, yay, and went and started installing and moving everything onto a portable hardrive. This worked really well, until I unplugged the hardrive. Now steam is telling me to reinstall everything.

-How do I get it to actually search through my computer to make sure it isn't missing anything?
-Or how do I configure steam to run it's software on any computer (so long as I'm logged into my account), and keep the library portable?

This is one of the reasons Valve recommend against installing games to external USB drives.

https://support.steampowered.com/kb_article.php?ref=8379-RYIP-2998

I think the best you can do is try to launch the games that you know are installed. When Steam tries to reinstall them, it should detect the installed games and make them appear as installed again without re-downloading.

If you must continue to use an external drive, then you need to ensure it is always connected. The moment Steam is running and the drive is not present, all of your installed games on that drive will appear to be uninstalled again.

Originally posted by Robin3sk:

External hard-drives are already problematic due to performance issues.

This is not the bigger problem as they tend to disconnect and re-connect.

Thus, your games will appear as uninstalled.

If i were you, i would work on trying to get some more space in my main internal drive.

:yinyangflip:

Originally posted by fauxtronic:

Basically, if someone insists on using an external USB drive with Steam, they need to ensure it's a reputable USB 3 drive. Reputable because some USB 3 drives (particular budget units) don't perform as fast as they should. USB 2 or worse will not match the performance of a SATA drive.

Even though I've told people many times over the years about performance issues, it should really not be a problem with USB 3 drives in the year 2018. Even consoles can use them now, and they read data on the fly (loading scenery as you move around) in open world games without affecting performance.

I live in hope that Valve with eventually start supporting external USB 3+ drives, but certification of these drives probably needs to be improved first. I don't really blame Valve for being leery of them.

Of the three of you, turns out that theres an option in settings (The article showed me this) that actually allows you to enable/disable/select new and old steam library folder, and I'm not sure what you mean about these USB 3 Drives or if I have them, but all I know is that when I can access the game, they run smooth as hell. (I'm running things about the size of TF2, Portal 2 and Space Engineers. Might not be that big, but still, they run fine.)

[Satoru]

The point is steam doesnt support external drives becaue they have a nasty tendency to 'disappear' temporarily. This isnt a problem for normal usage. but steam pings the drives constantly looking for libraries and upates. If it doesnt see the drive, it assumes its offline and disconnects the library

[Numerose]

Originally posted by Satoru:

The point is steam doesnt support external drives becaue they have a nasty tendency to 'disappear' temporarily. This isnt a problem for normal usage. but steam pings the drives constantly looking for libraries and upates. If it doesnt see the drive, it assumes its offline and disconnects the library

Like you say, I've discovered a way that forces it to recognise it/see it, although it does mean that I have to use said process everytime I unplug the hardrive, which isn't an issue, it's really freakin' simple and poses literally no problem. But if you mean "'disappear' temporarily." as literally losing the hardrive, well, lets just say that that's hard luck.

If you need an example of how I do it, here are the steps I take to do it;

-Steam top left
-Settings
-Downloads
-Content Libraries
-Select your library to add (Typically called "SteamLibrary" unless you changed the name"

Steam should automatically accept this and display the games available in you games library.

[demo]

Worth saying that if you are using an external drive, (& they`re almost a necessity if you are using a laptop and short of space) , then always exit steam properly before unplugging the drive. Similarily, never start steam until the unit is plugged in and showing up in file explorer.

[Numerose]

Originally posted by demo:

Worth saying that if you are using an external drive, (& they`re almost a necessity if you are using a laptop and short of space) , then always exit steam properly before unplugging the drive. Similarily, never start steam until the unit is plugged in and showing up in file explorer.

This isn't necessary. As I said in my last post, you can enable and disable the external drive manually without having to log in and out of steam periodically just by following the 5 quick steps.
:/

[demo]

Its only un-necessary if you`re prepared to add the library every time it happens, and it will happen if you unplug before exiting steam. Exiting properly means steam will remember the library.

[Numerose]

Originally posted by demo:

Its only un-necessary if you`re prepared to add the library every time it happens, and it will happen if you unplug before exiting steam. Exiting properly means steam will remember the library.

So now begs the question "Is it simply faster to manually set up the device via steam settings, or is it faster to simply log out, disconnect external drive, do whatever you need to with it, reconnect ad log back in?". I don't think it'd be prudent to suggest the former.

[demo]

If you unplug before exiting steam and its in the middle of an update then the game being updated could easily be corrupted and need a full re-install - (no joke if its 50GB or more), exiting steam properly suspends all those background processes.

[Numerose]

Originally posted by demo:

If you unplug before exiting steam and its in the middle of an update then the game being updated could easily be corrupted and need a full re-install - (no joke if its 50GB or more), exiting steam properly suspends all those background processes.

It wouldn't make a difference if you were to pause said update, then remove the drive? I'll have to experiment with this further on.

[demo]

possibly, possibly not. However exiting is the safest or err most `prudent` option.. :-)

[Numerose]

Lmao, but I'm fine with setting it up in download, thanks for that though.

[demo]

No worries, have a good one.