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I've used external hard drives for the whole life of my steam account - 10 years. No issues at all to speak of.
Nowadays with USB3 and higher it's a no brainer.
There's just two things you need to do OP to make sure smooth running.
First whenever you use any number of external drives, make sure first you ALWAYS power your PC down each time you finsh with it (sleep mode really ♥♥♥♥♥ around with things).
So boot up windows, and make sure the drives are all recognised in Windows then start Steam. If done automatically on boot is should be fine.
Also make sure you have any power savings settings off, and put your PC and hard drives to full power all the time.
If you don't do this you can from time to time find games "disappearing" as the drives don't get recognised.
Do this and it should be absolutely fine.
I have 10 years several laptops and over 1400 games and every single one worls absolutely fine with extrenal drives.
As far as I can tell this:
https://help.steampowered.com/en/faqs/view/4578-18A7-C819-8620
is not outdated in any way. Just because you haven't encountered any issues yourself doesn't mean the underlaying problems with using external drives don't exist.
Well no, I'm not saying issues don't exist. That's not what I said at all.
ANYONE can get problems with any game you care to mention and even to a large degree. So that makes all games not worth selling right?
No the fact is that it IS outdated data. It's not recommended for smooth sailing, but the fact is all the people over the years that I've detailed this too have all said it worked fine for them too.
So unless you have data on this being as big a problem as you claim, then sorry I don't see that. Bear in mind that you could have hundreds of example on these ofurms, but out of how many millions of accoutsn, what does that make it?
The fact remains I do it this way, and it's easy and it works flawlessly.
You can easily buy a £40 drive off Amazon that's USB 3 and it will work fine.
Again, just because you don't have any problems yourself doesn't mean the problem doesn't exist, nor does it mean that the advice is outdated or inaccurate.
The fact remains that people regularely report problems with installations on external drives. As such avoiding external drives is quite sound advice.
All I've said is demonstrable. I can easily prove it works for me. I've said it works for the poeple I've recommended it to and you can search the forums to see that too.
I made no other claims than this.
So based oin this, it IS rather outdated to suggest that it WILL be as bad as you claim.
That's all the point is.
It is dead easy and cheap to buy an external drive and use it without issue.
You can make any configuration you're determined to use viable.
Although using external HDDs for anything but portable storage has zero appeal to me. So if you were to ask me if I would do it, no, never. But I'm an enthusiast snob and like things to be just so.
Your anecdotal evidence is useless because the problem itself still exists and Valve - for good reason - recommends against using external drives to avoid such problems.
What you're doing is akin to claiming that seatbelts and airbags are "outdated" because you or your friends have never been in a car accident. You personal experience doesn't make data demonstrating the issue "outdated" just because it hasn't happened to you.
In the same vain you seem to be thinking that this:
Is a valid counterargument. So far you've been demonstrating fallacious thinking on multiple levels.
I'd also like to point out that I never claimed that it will inevitably lead to problems. I didn't say anything to that account. The only thing I've done is point out that Steam/Valve - for good reason - recommends against external drives for this because doing so can cause problems which are not encountered when using internal drives.
And this directly relates to OP's question regarding whether
No, [it] does not work "just like an internal one" because you're using different connection standards, protocols and/or power supplies. eSATA has been pretty much phased out and requires an external power supply (or you'd need something like Delock's SATA pin 8 power[www.delock.com]. Which on modern machines pretty much leaves only USB, which isn't the same as using an internal SATA or M.2 connector and has it's own advantages and disadvantages. Just because it's "plug&play and appears as a drive icon" doesn't mean these are identical or comparable as far as associated problems are concerned. Some external drives might not even report S.M.A.R.T. attributes depending on the controller.
All I pointed out is that it works for me and that every time I've offered it on here over the years every single person has said it works great.
That's all. Take it with a pinch of salt if you wish, but the answer is for the OP, not you.
Dont use Seagate they can just break after 3 years of use.
Use WD very reliable and good, Alway backup your stuff off USB drives to several drives replace evey 3 years as games wear them out faster. Mine was 6 TB great loss as I stored my life on it plus games.
I paid a professional to recover it. Was not able to as Seagate are notorious for not being able to replace parts. WD is good as they can use a doner usb drive.
Dont buy huge 6 TB keep around 3 to 4 TB is enough.
It was the first and only time I bought a Seagate I had never had a problem before.
media type is many things from tape to whatever storage device, its like they skip other fauthy factors that can happend and then shut down that loop hole but external disk has been there and still is there.
and as other user with 10g network then again it open up for network transfer over 5GB ( point is not to be right in this but they did the wrong way, and should had a transfer counter as a most per game then run things. ( most here know play game over lesser transfer cable can be part of the problem ) and maybe its here most steam user dont know such and why its say "Steam not Recommended it" you need to be skill enough to know this.
If it works for the people I've stated then it becomes every bit as valid as you saying "well some people have problems with this game so it shouldn't be sold".
So again, all I'm doing is offering advice based on EVIDENCE.
Now, consider this. You keep saying it's flawed. Demonstrate your evidence that this is the MAJORITY of people that will have these issues.
USB3+
https://www.kingston.com/en/usb-flash-drives/usb-30
things and speed and capacity and use a flip/flop system like a floppy disk, its just a matter steam know is it attached to steam system or not or missing as not connected or dont work to lost content.
It is true that Valve suggests against it because of possible usb connectivity issues. That said, if your usb slots are robust (no constant disconnects on your devices) and the external HDD's controller has no issues, you are very unlikely to encounter any issues at all.
In addition to that, the aforementioned argument that "many people who have issues with external HDDs post here therefore you would do well to avoid them" is moot. You can't know how many people in comparison have no issues with external drives, because, obviously, they are much less likely to be posting here since they will be merrily playing their games. That distinction is important to make because if .5% of external HDD users encounter issues, it would be an acceptable risk for many people. If that number was 50%, it would not be acceptable. This is information we simply do not have.
Bottom line - I won't deny that I will trust a SATA connection more than I would USB where HDDs are concerned. Why? Because the latter has more points of failure. But that does not mean it is unusable.
It comes down to use-case: if you need an external HDD (in order to move it between different PCs without reinstalling the games or because you have a laptop and no room for a third drive) it should be fine. If it is a desktop and you find no need to move the drive around, just get an internal HDD.