Backing up save games before computer reset.

[Supreme Admiral Brenton]

This has probably been asked many many times before but i cant find exactly what im looking for when i search for it so... im sorry in advance.

Pretty much im going to reset my laptop to hopefully speed it up or at least clean it up soon but i dont want to lose the saves i have hundreds of hours in for games like tropico banished subnautica and so on.

Iv noticed some games have steam cloud back up (are those games' save points automatically copied and upload to the steam cloud? which means i dont have to back up those ones? thats what i think anyway)

But iv just spent the last couple hours backing up (using the steam back up and restore games option) the ones i want to keep and am just now copying them over to a USB stick. Will this work and keep my saved games safe then i can just use the restore option when i reinstall steam onto my computer?

Thank you heaps for your help everyone. again sorry to ask a stupid question but... i just want to be sure with hundreds of hours of my life haha. Thank you. hope everyones having a good day.

[󠀡󠀡󠀡⁧⁧the.jester]

If you use steam cloud, then in theory, games that you use it would be ok backed up to the cloud.

Not all games use it so some would require manual backup. Unfortunately, game developers haven't standardized where games are saved, so there could be a number of places that saved games could be.

You could give this a go.

https://www.gamesave-manager.com

[Supreme Admiral Brenton]

Originally posted by the.jester:

If you use steam cloud, then in theory, games that you use it would be ok backed up to the cloud.

Not all games use it so some would require manual backup. Unfortunately, game developers haven't standardized where games are saved, so there could be a number of places that saved games could be.

You could give this a go.

https://www.gamesave-manager.com

So if i just use the backup games feature built into steam that wont copy my save games as well?

[Brujeira]

Well, that tool is just for save files. What I’m saying is that you could use it to move the saves to the cloud before you’re done with a game and the game will update them there instead of on your hard drive.

[󠀡󠀡󠀡⁧⁧the.jester]

It wouldn't, the backup and restore is for the game specific files needed for the game to run.

Use steam cloud (if you already have it enabled) in combination with a program like the above to backup your save files.

[J4MESOX4D]

Most save games that don't use the cloud are located in your documents folder. Just copy any saved data from there and when you start again and reinstall the games, just paste in the save files back into the new documents folder. As said above, some other games may have the offline save file in a different directory so it's just a matter of finding out where.

If a game uses Steam Cloud, you can simply login on a fresh install on a new formatted device, install the game again and resume your game as before with everything largely saved including progress and settings.

[VaLiuM]

I would suggest using this site to see which game saves the savegames in which folder:
https://www.pcgamingwiki.com/wiki/Home

The Roaming folder is also pretty common for savegames.