Install Steam
login
|
language
简体中文 (Simplified Chinese)
繁體中文 (Traditional Chinese)
日本語 (Japanese)
한국어 (Korean)
ไทย (Thai)
Български (Bulgarian)
Čeština (Czech)
Dansk (Danish)
Deutsch (German)
Español - España (Spanish - Spain)
Español - Latinoamérica (Spanish - Latin America)
Ελληνικά (Greek)
Français (French)
Italiano (Italian)
Bahasa Indonesia (Indonesian)
Magyar (Hungarian)
Nederlands (Dutch)
Norsk (Norwegian)
Polski (Polish)
Português (Portuguese - Portugal)
Português - Brasil (Portuguese - Brazil)
Română (Romanian)
Русский (Russian)
Suomi (Finnish)
Svenska (Swedish)
Türkçe (Turkish)
Tiếng Việt (Vietnamese)
Українська (Ukrainian)
Report a translation problem
Discussions Rules and Guidelines
Report this post
https://support.steampowered.com/kb_article.php?ref=8379-RYIP-2998
Sorry but this is way out of date.
I've been using external hard drives for YEARS on Steam, and while you can get some performance hit, it's bloody tiny and nowadays, largely negligible with the improvements in USB and so on.
So please, OP, ignore this.
What I think you're doing wrong, OP, is you're not copying the stuff across correctly. You SHOULD use the facility within Steam to copy games.
Go to your Steam settings > Dowloads. Then click on the Steam Library folders at the top of that window.
Add whatever hard drive and folder you want to copy TO. Once you've done that you can move whatever games you want within this menu.
As I said, I've run games on external hard drives for years. I only came back after a 5 years absence in March, as I'd bought a new laptop. I immediately bunged in an SSD, and have three external drives I've been using, though I'm currently just using two.
So I have my SSD fior the OS, the internal mechanical one for other stuff, then two external USB hard drives, one of 4TB the other 2TB all for Steam games. All work fine with no noticeable performance change. Maybe a couple of seconds here or there on loading but nothing in game.
There's also the problem of Steam starting when the OS starts and the drive not being readable yet, but that's easily solved by just restarting Steam.
As long as you're aware of those two things then using an external is perfectly fine.
I wasn't awareof the drive not being readab;e yet - never heard that one.
The drive must be mounted and readable before the Steam client starts, otherwise it can’t detect it and will show all the games on that drive as uninstalled. Only solution is to restart Steam so it can detect the drive.
Oh yeah, I get how that works - all I'm saying is I haven't seen it before or heard of it.
Ah, the OS was the first thing sprang to my mind.
Thankfully, though I'm using Windows 10 and frankly it's a pile of ♥♥♥♥ in many ways, at least in this regard it hasn't misbehaved.
I get it now - thank you for the heads up.
I've installed the games directly to my HDD from Steam, when it asks you where to store your game files. I've done that with every game & while some of the games worked, most didn't. I mean the point of having an external HDD is so you don't use up needed space on your internal HDD which I think makes your computer slower. But i'll just keep moving the games I wanna play to my internal for now, I only had a problem with having to redownload games, but if I only have to keep moving files around without having to download anything i'm ok with that... Also i've been playing Mordhau from my HDD & I haven't had any performance issues while playing. But anyway, good times when you could just stick the CD in & play, now we have to spend even more money using internet to download a game you've already paid for...
-----
Well, I'll be trying what Cruncyfrog suggested, as per the main use of it, directly saving a Steam Game via Steam to another Drive. The point here is not needing to use Steam Backup, just dump the Steam Game onto the external HDD, then can move it about as required, swappping games easily. No Backup Software or other ridiculousness required.
As to other mentioned issues above. Well, I don't start Steam on booting up the computer, that's idiocy. I load Steam when I'm ready to play. So by that reasoning, I'll get the ext HDD ready as required.
Some games will not work easily or well or at all via an external or even non C drive. Shrug. That's something easy to work around. That's why you try to have a large enough C drive otherwise, why isn't it your C drive. SSD, better be big enough for at least 2 large games, otherwise and the OS, what's the point? You aren't saving time if your swap times overwhelm your loading times, might as well then be all HDD and dump the SSD with that sort of trade-off.
Anyway, since I have a similar set-up, I'll be using a similar method as Crunchyfrog. Because it will tend to work. The key to it is, of course, have large enough main drive and large enough back-up or external drives to make the movement and management of games and their swapping of location easy to handle.
Personally, that's why I won't consider any SSD under 1 TB, and hard drives ought to be 2 TB at least. Nice also if you have your external working with USB 3.0 or better, as each level of USB, like 3.1, 3.2, and then USB C, really do increase potential speed. But in any case it works.
One last thing I'll mention, if you aren't aware of it already. I thoroughly recommend GameSaveManager. If you've got a lot of games installed it's pretty essential,as it makes tracking down your game saves FAR easier (as they can be saved all over the place).
It simply scans all the games, and collates all the info for you, and you can back up the saves in one go. Frankly, it's amazing.It used to be the old method for moving games about on Steam, before Valve implemented this themselves, which is why it reminded me.
How I work it, is to quickly back up the games I've been playing every couple of days (depending on how long I've been playing) onto a thumbdrive. Then, once a week or so, I take that thumbdrive and copy the data across to another drive or SD card where I store the "real" long term backups.
Probably overkill, but I try to do everything to never lose a save again. I even keep saves on there from the PS2 onwards, as it can sometimes be years between play.
@ crunchyfrog
Interesting. Where do you find this GameSaveManager for download? Is it on NexusMods or GitHub?
Yeah, about 2 months ago, I had my main PC go down. Can't get the parts and time to truly diagnose the problem right now. But had lots of multi-year old saves on that one and don't like using the Cloud. Will have to, at some point, see if I can bring the hard drive up via putting it into a usb external box, can't recall the name, but has the electronics and a drive cage. Then see if I can find the data on it via either Windows or Linux USB in the external drive cage. Or if I fix the computer first, then won't need to do that.
So, not a bad idea to back-up those saves. I should have been using this External WD Passport drive. It is working just by USB on plugging it in. 2TBs. Would have avoided the whole issue. Mea culpa.
This be it!
Oh and I hear you about that issue. That's one of the first times it happened to me with Steam. I never used to be a big PC gamer (I'm still not), but once I'd got about a hundred saves on the go, and my laptop went kaput, I plumped for a new laptop and a hard drive dock so I could salvage all the data from the drive.
After that I'd use it to pop separate drives in as and when I wanted a certain game. I had about 3 on the go.
But it's a bit cumbersome to keep swapping them out and can invite problems, so once USB 3.0 was a thing, I simply changed to external drives that connect directly.
Worst example of losing saves though has got to be the PS2 era. I used to do some testing for Datel with their Action Replay discs and the amount of times I would get corrupted regions of the memory card was annoying until I worked out it was a certain function on the Action Replay disc causing it.
There's some games I've started several times and never finished, usually getting to about the same area and then it was corruption time. Pain in the arse.
Still, once bitten twice shy. I'm never making that mistake again even if it means I have to make several backups.
Anyway, it sure worked well, not even needing a power supply brick. Sure was easy.
So Crunchfrog, just saying thanks for the help and inspiration. I was able in a single night to get at least 45 of my larger more interesting games downloaded to about 60% of that 2TB Passport drive and now have about 3x the data, but all in the external to swap in as needed.
Paid off, too, as I did it last day before moving and did it while moving on direct cable connection, now have WiFi (but it is free).
I can only imagine the frustration during the old PS2 days with those memory cards. Although, I did start in the old floppy disk era. Wait, no actually my first was on a cassette recorder, I plumb forgot. That one got corrupted after about 30 saves or something. I think power went down to the house for a second or so and it happened.
Ah, memories. Talk to you in future. But, mostly mission is accomplished now. Plenty of games to try on the backup library. And, yeah, with that experience, these individual WD Passports using just USB power, dang they are fast and large. I may grab a $99 dollar one on sale at Best Buy this week, rather then risk the toaster style ones having a worn contact over time.