Is it possible to move the steam cache folder?

[Arondight]

Hello there, as title says I would like to know if it's possible to move that folder located in appdata in a different location. Thanks in advance for help

[MrL0G1C]

Find other big directories with WinDirStat but I recommend not touching anything in windows of course.... Except..

Another space reclaiming thing I just found which reclaimed 800MB -
command line:
esentutl.exe /k c:\Windows\SoftwareDistribution\DataStore\DataStore.edb

Then /?
Recover then repair it if it happens to find any faults

Then defrag:
esentutl.exe /d c:\Windows\SoftwareDistribution\DataStore\DataStore.edb


And then compress the datastore folder = over 80% reduction in space used including previous steps.

[Arondight]

Originally posted by prime:

Originally posted by Arondight:

would i need to creat a link again if i delete them?

No, just do not delete link C:\Users\username\AppData\Local\Steam
and target folder for it D:\links\Steam, any file or folder inside D:\links\Steam could be deleted

oh alright, may i ask you what happens if I click on the option to clear cookies and cache inside the stam app? would that delete the shortcuts too?

[MrL0G1C]

Originally posted by Arondight:

Originally posted by prime:

No, just do not delete link C:\Users\username\AppData\Local\Steam
and target folder for it D:\links\Steam, any file or folder inside D:\links\Steam could be deleted

oh alright, may i ask you what happens if I click on the option to clear cookies and cache inside the stam app? would that delete the shortcuts too?

No. It works exactly like before. It's not a shortcut, it's a hardlink (afaik) - the folder is in a new location and windows is redirected to that location for the files.

[kunsight]

Originally posted by MrL0G1C:

No. It works exactly like before.

+

[Arondight]

Originally posted by MrL0G1C:

Originally posted by Arondight:

oh alright, may i ask you what happens if I click on the option to clear cookies and cache inside the stam app? would that delete the shortcuts too?

No. It works exactly like before. It's not a shortcut, it's a hardlink (afaik) - the folder is in a new location and windows is redirected to that location for the files.

so it would just delete the files in D, right? also I guess no other permanent solution other than mslinks?

[MrL0G1C]

You could install steam on a different partition.

[MrL0G1C]

Originally posted by Arondight:

Originally posted by MrL0G1C:

No. It works exactly like before. It's not a shortcut, it's a hardlink (afaik) - the folder is in a new location and windows is redirected to that location for the files.

so it would just delete the files in D, right? also I guess no other permanent solution other than mslinks?

The program would know nothing about the folder being redirected, windows does the redirecting. The program would still think the files are on C: and behave as if the files are on C: and all file operations would work 100% normally.

[kunsight]

Originally posted by MrL0G1C:

You could install steam on a different partition.

I have steam installed on D but it still keeps cache on C:\users\...

[MrL0G1C]

Originally posted by prime:

Originally posted by MrL0G1C:

You could install steam on a different partition.

I have steam installed on D but it still keeps cache on C:\users\...

Oops, of course it does.

[kunsight]

Originally posted by Arondight:

so it would just delete the files in D, right? also I guess no other permanent solution other than mslinks?

Right. Don't be afraid of mklink, I'm using it since win7 for games/apps to save my ssd =)

[Arondight]

Originally posted by prime:

Originally posted by Arondight:

so it would just delete the files in D, right? also I guess no other permanent solution other than mslinks?

Right. Don't be afraid of mklink, I'm using it since win7 for games/apps to save my ssd =)

that's good, you know the reason I opened this tread was because I managed to move the entire chrome cache without needing mklinks, just with some command lines inside the exe. That's why I asked this in this thread.

Also wouldn't you get the same amount of writes on ssd while using this method? As far as I know the links in the C drive still gets updated

[MrL0G1C]

Not a link, a redirect - only 1 redirect, if then files are on a hdd instead of an ssd then no, ssd reads and writes aren't happening for the folder on the SSD.

There is no "links in the c drive", forget links, Windows looks after the file system, windows gets files for steam, it now gets from from where the files are (moved to). Windows checks for redirects 1st before it gets the files.

[Arondight]

Originally posted by MrL0G1C:

Not a link, a redirect - only 1 redirect, if then files are on a hdd instead of an ssd then no, ssd reads and writes aren't happening for the folder on the SSD.

There is no "links in the c drive", forget links, Windows looks after the file system, windows gets files for steam, it now gets from from where the files are (moved to). Windows checks for redirects 1st before it gets the files.

oh ok, i m trying this out now. How do i know if that worked?

[kunsight]

Originally posted by Arondight:

that's good, you know the reason I opened this tread was because I managed to move the entire chrome cache without needing mklinks, just with some command lines inside the exe. That's why I asked this in this thread.

Also wouldn't you get the same amount of writes on ssd while using this method? As far as I know the links in the C drive still gets updated

MrL0G1C right, even if you write a petabyte in this folder it all goes in drive D, and 0 in C.

[MrL0G1C]

Originally posted by Arondight:

Originally posted by MrL0G1C:

Not a link, a redirect - only 1 redirect, if then files are on a hdd instead of an ssd then no, ssd reads and writes aren't happening for the folder on the SSD.

There is no "links in the c drive", forget links, Windows looks after the file system, windows gets files for steam, it now gets from from where the files are (moved to). Windows checks for redirects 1st before it gets the files.

oh ok, i m trying this out now. How do i know if that worked?

The cache folder on D would change as it is used.