Transferring game data to new PC without USB flash drive?

[Speedwagon]

I rencently upgraded to a new gaming PC, and I want to transfer my game data. I cannot do this with a USB flashdrive, as I only have a 32 GB one, and that is much too small (I have over 200 GB of games on the PC). Is there another way to do this? Could I transfer games one at a time (Copying each game's data into the steamapps folder individually, which I could do with a 32 GB hard drive)?

I'd really appreciate some help on this topic!

[eddiepc]

yeah do it one at a time.dont forget to copy/move the appmanifest files aswell.

[Speedwagon]

Originally posted by spoodge:

yeah do it one at a time.dont forget to copy/move the appmanifest files aswell.

Appmanifest files? What are those?

[eddiepc]

they are little text files that tell steam that the game is installed,
they are in the steamapps folder.

[Speedwagon]

Originally posted by spoodge:

they are little text files that tell steam that the game is installed,
they are in the steamapps folder.

Oh alright, should I copy all of those at once? Because I don't know which ones go to each game.

[↑↑↓↓←→←→BASelect]

What you could do is take the hard drive out of your new pc and plug it in your old pc as a secondary drive and then copy the files over to the common/steamapps folder that way. It will be much much faster. And you can copy them over all at one time.

[eddiepc]

yeah do what soul has suggested much easier.

[↑↑↓↓←→←→BASelect]

You can also put your old pc hard drive in your new pc and copy it that way also.

[Speedwagon]

Originally posted by ☠Soul Assassin︻芫══↼:

You can also put your old pc hard drive in your new pc and copy it that way also.

My old PC is a crappy 2012-13 Dell Inspirion laptop with a crappy 500 GB HDD, while my new PC is a 2016 MSI Gaming Desktop with 1 TB HDD.

I really don't feel like opening up any of the PCs.

[roguekiller23231]

make sure to use something like GameSave Manager (search for it online) to backup all your game saves. you can then restore them on the other computer with Gamesave Manager.

you would have to reinstall all the games anyway, they usually don't transfer over like that, you would have to create a backup using the steam tool (Click Steam at the top left, Backup and restore) (it does not backup save game progress).

if you have a decent router that both computers are connected to, you could set up a Team Viewer account and use it to transfer files over your network, there are also other methods to share the folder/files over the network without using Teamviewer, if you search online 'how to share files over a network' and put your version of windows on the end.

[↑↑↓↓←→←→BASelect]

Then do the flash drive copy then i was just suggesting a faster way to do it so it is less time consuming for you.

[↑↑↓↓←→←→BASelect]

Originally posted by roguekiller23231:

make sure to use something like GameSave Manager (search for it online) to backup all your game saves. you can then restore them on the other computer with Gamesave Manager.

you would have to reinstall all the games anyway, they usually don't transfer over like that, you would have to create a backup using the steam tool (Click Steam at the top left, Backup and restore) (it does not backup save game progress).

if you have a decent router that both computers are connected to, you could set up a Team Viewer account and use it to transfer files over your network, there are also other methods to share the folder/files over the network without using Teamviewer, if you search online 'how to share files over a network' and put your version of windows on the end.

Not true when i bought my 4 tb hard drive all i did was copy over the acf files and the steam apps folder to my new drive and bingo i can play them with no problems. So yea you don't need to use the steam backup option just copy the acf file and the game folder and there you go your game is now on a new hard drive no backing up and no redownloading them.

[eddiepc]

you can still take the hdd out the laptop,it should have the same connection (sata) and put it in your pc.

if you dont want to thats fine.
you can just copy every appmanifest file over doesnt really matter.

to find out what file goes with what game -google the name of the game + "app id"
or if you go to the store page for a game it will say th app id in the adress bar(its the numbers at the end)

[roguekiller23231]

never worked for me when i copied everything over to a new drive. plus if you copy over and not install you might run into some issues with config files being copied over and textures for the old computer/setup rather then new settings/textures being created for the new computer.

[↑↑↓↓←→←→BASelect]

I'll show you below all locations that have saved game information.
C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\userdata
C:\Users\YOUR USER NAME HERE\Documents
C:\Users\YOUR USER NAME HERE\Documents\My Games
C:\Users\YOUR USER NAME HERE\Saved Games
C:\Users\YOUR USER NAME HERE\AppData\Local
C:\Users\YOUR USER NAME HERE\AppData\Roaming

Every location i listed i have saved game files in. So maybe the games you have are saved in a different location then i listed. Also sometimes the folder is named by the app number in userdata and by the maker of the game in other locations. The folder won't always have the game name it will be the dev name or the publishers name as the folder name.

This site will show you where the save game data is located at just search for the game and it will tell you where the config file is and saved game files are at.

http://pcgamingwiki.com/wiki/Category:Games

[↑↑↓↓←→←→BASelect]

Originally posted by roguekiller23231:

never worked for me when i copied everything over to a new drive. plus if you copy over and not install you might run into some issues with config files being copied over and textures for the old computer/setup rather then new settings/textures being created for the new computer.

Always worked perfect for me, Never ever had a problem. I'm looking into getting a 6 tb drive as my 4 gb drive is full only 22 gb left. And ill be doing that method again when i get my 6 tb hdd.