I just Bought a Seagate Expansion Portable Drive with 1 terabyte but I don't know how to allow my games to install there

[Heinscheiße]

pls help

[Silicon Vampire]

Portable drives are not recommended for running games...

[Ogami]

Originally posted by Silicon Vampire:

Portable drives are not recommended for running games...

Honestly with USB 3.0 its not that terrible. Data transfer rates are often enough to get smooth asset loading in many games. I had Diablo 3 running for months from a USB stick, years ago.
Still, internal HDD with SATA cables are of course faster.


As for the OP, go into your Steam client settings, under the DOWNLOAD tab and create a new Steam library on the external drive. After that, when downloading a game, you get the choice into which library you want to download it.

[Spawn of Totoro]

Originally posted by Ogami:

Honestly with USB 3.0 its not that terrible. Data transfer rates are often enough to get smooth asset loading in many games. I had Diablo 3 running for months from a USB stick, years ago.
Still, internal HDD with SATA cables are of course faster.

That isn't the issue. They tend to get disconnected and lose the games on them. There are many other issues with using an external then just speeds.

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

[d]External Hard Drives[/d]
External hard drives are not recommended for use with Steam or Steam's games. Aside from many potential performance issues, external hard drives may connect or disconnect from the computer at inopportune times as part of their normal operations. If you encounter this issue with an external drive, install Steam and your games to an internal drive instead.

[Ogami]

Originally posted by Spawn of Totoro:

External hard drives are not recommended for use with Steam or Steam's games. Aside from many potential performance issues, external hard drives may connect or disconnect from the computer at inopportune times as part of their normal operations. IF you encounter this issue with an external drive, install Steam and your games to an internal drive instead.

IF is the key word. I know at least 2 people in my friend list who have their whole library installed on external HDD. And play like this for years.
Mainly because they want to take their whole library with them when being not at home with their laptops.
YES , if you pull the cable when the game is currently operating you may lose data or damage your safe file.
But the same happens if i push the the power button or have a power outage.

Playing from a external HDD is neither more dangerous or has any other major risks.
Execpt possible longer loading times or stutter ingame if a game wants to load more assets then the connection is capable off, speed wise.

Is it recommended installing and playing games from a external HDD? No.
But there is also nothing dangerous about it.

[Spawn of Totoro]

Originally posted by Ogami:

IF is the key word. I know at least 2 people in my friend list who have their whole library installed on external HDD. And play like this for years. YES , if you pull the cable when the game is currently operatiogn you may lose data or damage your safe file.
But the same happens if i cut the power or have a power outage.

Playing from a external HDD is neither more dangerous or has any other mayjor risks.
Execpt possible longer loading times or stutter ingame if a game wants to load more assets then the connection is capable off, speed wise.

Just pointing out why it is not recommended, I didn't say not to use it and neither did SV.

People have reported having to reinstall their library because they forgot to have the drive plugged in when turning their system on and running a game. That is just one possibility of many.

Of course pulling out the cable isn't suggested and that is common sense, but there are, as stated, other issues at play.

Originally posted by Ogami:

Is it recommended installing and playing games from a external HDD? No.
But there is also nothing dangerous about it.

And where did someone say it was?

I suggest calming down and reading the posts.

[Silicon Vampire]

nobody said "dangerous"

it is not recommended

[Heinscheiße]

Well it is a gaming external hard drive that's what it says on the package

[Heinscheiße]

also, I said that I can't download my games and it won't download to the external hard drive.

[Ogami]

Originally posted by water.:

also, I said that I can't download my games and it won't download to the external hard drive.

Did you try what i wrote in my first post?

²As for the OP, go into your Steam client settings, under the DOWNLOAD tab and create a new Steam library on the external drive. After that, when downloading a game, you get the choice into which library you want to download it.²

[Spawn of Totoro]

Originally posted by water.:

Well it is a gaming external hard drive that's what it says on the package

They can slap the word "gaming" on anything. It doesn't make a difference tbh.

Just letting you know of potential issues with using an external drive.

[The Giving One]

Feel free to do a forum search about all the possible issues with using external drives, where many have posted about that here before and had such issues.

As said above, it's not recommended with Steam/games. Drives can become disconnected at inopportune times, go to sleep, or security programs like antivirus and others might cause issues with the games also.

[The Giving One]

Originally posted by Security Cam Sam:

That's how it works.

Going to sleep possibly, as well as otherwise becoming disconnected while Steam is writing to it is also how it can work. And those can possibly cause issues.

At any rate, it seems your original question was answered above :

https://steamcommunity.com/discussions/forum/1/1843566500531225113/?tscn=1551754489#c1843566500531474517

EDIT.............

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

External Hard Drives

External hard drives are not recommended for use with Steam or Steam's games. Aside from many potential performance issues, external hard drives may connect or disconnect from the computer at inopportune times as part of their normal operations. If you encounter this issue with an external drive, install Steam and your games to an internal drive instead.

We see that one here most often, where the user's games are actually installed, but they appear as uninstalled in the library. And often enough, it was due to the use of an external drive.

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.

[Ogami]

Originally posted by The Giving One:

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

The OP is not talking about installing Steam to an external HDD, just creating a second library on it to download games . Something which MANY users, including myself, have done for years.

[The Giving One]

Originally posted by Ogami:

The OP is not talking about installing Steam to an external HDD, just creating a second library on it to download games . Something which MANY users, including myself, have done for years.

Yes you are right, and I just posted that for reference about using externals. They don't say "games" in that part on that support page but it can be assumed they mean Steam games on the drive also, whereas the games would then also be installed in that Steam folder, also on the external drive. But thanks for pointing that out as you do have a point.

[Spawn of Totoro]

Originally posted by Security Cam Sam:

That's like saying, "They can slap 'music' on anything, doesn't make it any less of a collection of ♥♥♥♥♥♥ sounds" I'm pretty sure if it's built for gaming, you can game on it. That's how it works.

It is an HDD or SSD. Put gaming on the side makes it no less then what it is, but also no more then that either. Any SSD or HDD can be used for gaming.

I can put "gaming" on a pencil for D&D. Doesn't change the fact it is just a pencil.