A question regarding external storage drives and game installations

[Toaster]

I have a desktop PC and a gaming laptop, the specs aren't really relevant. A little under two years ago, I along with many others in my area got hit with one of the worst hurricanes in recent history, and up until recently, we've been barely living off of generators. Given the lack of proper electricity for nearly two years, I've been relying solely on my laptop for all my gaming desires, and I got a 2TB external SSD so I can actually have more than two games installed at a time.
Here's where my problem is. Now that life is somewhat normal again and we have access to basic necessities, I'm thinking of booting up my desktop for the first time in a long while. But I'm not quite sure how that would work, since I've got a number of games already installed on my desktop's interal hard drive that are *also* installed on my external SSD, the two most prominent examples being Warframe and Monster Hunter: World. Would it be a good idea for me to uninstall the overlapping games from my desktop's internal drive before plugging in my SSD, or can I just leave everything as-is and be on my merry way?

[Pocahawtness]

Although those games are installed on the external SSD what that actually means is just the files are present on the SSD. If you move the SSD to another computer they will not be installed on that other computer, just present, so they will not interfere with any installation on that PC. What I would do is delete them off that SSD. You could also choose to uninstall them from the PC, attach the SSD then install them again to that SSD. Steam would take less time installing them because they are already present. Depends where you want them to be as to which you would do.

[Toaster]

🤪 Pocahawtness님이 먼저 게시:

Although those games are installed on the external SSD what that actually means is just the files are present on the SSD. If you move the SSD to another computer they will not be installed on that other computer, just present, so they will not interfere with any installation on that PC. What I would do is delete them off that SSD. You could also choose to uninstall them from the PC, attach the SSD then install them again to that SSD. Steam would take less time installing them because they are already present. Depends where you want them to be as to which you would do.

All right, I'll give the second option a try since my internet is... not great. Thanks.