steam not detecting external hardrive full of games

[jobotree]

I have a 1tb external hardrive filled with all my steam games. I recently had to wipe my computer and reinstall steam. When I plugged the hardrive back in, added it in the steam library folders but my games still don't show up on my library. they are still fully launchable from inside the folder of the hardrive but they don't show up in my library. I've tried reinstalling steam again and setting the default steam library folder to my drive but it doesn't work, does anyone know how to fix this?

[ペニスを信じろ]

try to put your games to an internal hard , then u try to add games back , or if does"t work try to search every game on steam and try to add to your library

[jobotree]

Originally posted by YanKunKoi:

try to put your games to an internal hard , then u try to add games back , or if does"t work try to search every game on steam and try to add to your library

i dont have enough space on my internal hardrive to move all of my games there

[Supafly]

Originally posted by jobotree:

i dont have enough space on my internal hardrive to move all of my games there

Then install Steam on the external drive. That way it'll alway be with the games and never need to reinstall it if you need to wipe the OS drive

Option 1

With Steam closed rename the folder the games are stored on the external drive. Lets say
D:\Games\steamapps

Change to

D:\Games\steamapps _old

Load Steam
Create a Library on the External Drive
D:\Games
Close Steam
Rename
D:\Games\steamapps _old
to D:\Games\steamapps

Option to
Create a Library on the External Drive (Not where the games are currently, Or rename the folder like above)
Close Steam
Cut, not copy, CUT the contents of the old Library folder and paste into the new folder. Once done delete the old, now empty, folder
Load Steam


Steam should detect the games. Each game will run first time setup when you run them as the OS has been reinstalled

[jobotree]

Originally posted by Supafly:

Originally posted by jobotree:

i dont have enough space on my internal hardrive to move all of my games there

Then install Steam on the external drive. That way it'll alway be with the games and never need to reinstall it if you need to wipe the OS drive

Option 1

With Steam closed rename the folder the games are stored on the external drive. Lets say
D:\Games\steamapps

Change to

D:\Games\steamapps _old

Load Steam
Create a Library on the External Drive
D:\Games
Close Steam
Rename
D:\Games\steamapps _old
to D:\Games\steamapps

Option to
Create a Library on the External Drive (Not where the games are currently, Or rename the folder like above)
Close Steam
Cut, not copy, CUT the contents of the old Library folder and paste into the new folder. Once done delete the old, now empty, folder
Load Steam


Steam should detect the games. Each game will run first time setup when you run them as the OS has been reinstalled

Thanks, this worked, i was worried i was gonna have to reinstall them all and loose progress but now they are safe.

[Supafly]

Originally posted by jobotree:

Thanks, this worked, i was worried i was gonna have to reinstall them all and loose progress but now they are safe.

Happy to help