Steam Backup - restoring a backup to a drive other than C:?

[Ninane]

I backed up some games to my external hdd so I could transfer them to a new laptop. The laptop has two drives. Steam is installed to the c drive, but I put games on the d drive. I've made the d drive the default one on the steam client, yet restoring backups still tries to do so on the c drive.

How can I restore a backup to the D drive? I'd like to not have to bother with restoring files to the c drive and then manually moving them over to the d drive.

[Three333Dog]

I do have the same issue here. Is there a solution for this problem? I was able to choose the location when i was restoring my first backup! Now, that i want to restore my second Backup, i can't choose location anymore. I also made the d drive the default one.

[ReBoot]

Put Steam on D. Problem solved.

[Kwisatz Haderach]

also having this problem. want to install games to another drive with free space but ya'll aint letting me

[Menace123]

Easy in fact :

Steam - Settings - Download - Steam library - Add a new library folder - Make it as default

Edit : Still not working. LOL

[CarltoN.]

for anyone still looking for a solution to this problem, i think i accidentally found one.

after changing the default drive for game installs and restarting steam didnt change the default restore location also, i decided to bite the bullet and just redownload my games. however after starting this i went back to restore 1 particular game i didnt want to lose the save for and noticed the 'available space' had changed to a much larger number than before. because the restore location was my much larger, mechanical hdd not my primary ssd!

tl;dr try to start a new game download after changing your default install location and restarting steam, then just stop the download and attempt a backup restore once again.

hope this works for you guys

[Aeronor]

Originally posted by CarltoN💕:

tl;dr try to start a new game download after changing your default install location and restarting steam, then just stop the download and attempt a backup restore once again.

This absolutely worked for me, thank you!

[Aikzir]

Originally posted by CarltoN💕:

for anyone still looking for a solution to this problem, i think i accidentally found one.

after changing the default drive for game installs and restarting steam didnt change the default restore location also, i decided to bite the bullet and just redownload my games. however after starting this i went back to restore 1 particular game i didnt want to lose the save for and noticed the 'available space' had changed to a much larger number than before. because the restore location was my much larger, mechanical hdd not my primary ssd!

tl;dr try to start a new game download after changing your default install location and restarting steam, then just stop the download and attempt a backup restore once again.

hope this works for you guys :D: :D:

WOW !!! its work.. thankss bro.. you are my hero

[Nick]

If above doesn't work for anyone else. I found that setting the new library location and then restarting the pc caused it to display the correct drive.

[MaxiBerdy]

I couldn't make it work with the answers given above, an other answer on internet explain my problem perfectly : https://forums.tomshardware.com/threads/steam-restore-and-missing-option-to-select-location.3105209/#post-19539268

This is a pain, Steam should fix this feature !

[nullable]

In the future I would recommend not using Steam Backup, it's pretty much a legacy feature and not necessary if you're moving games around on large enough media like large thumb drives, external HDDs, or over a network.

It works great if you really need to put a 10GB game on optical discs to archive or move it around, but otherwise it's just a weird extra step and you don't get any benefits from using it that I am aware of.

[MaxiBerdy]

Well I usually move my games around myself, copy paste and such, but this could be a two step move, that you could set up and forget while playing an other game, and steam would recognize instantly that you have reinstalled all those game to an other location. Right now I am clicking install on a tons of game, one at a time (cause I can't do more too) and this is not very efficient haha...

[hank]

this is the ritual that worked for me:

1) make a new steam library folder (on the drive you want to install to)
2) set it as the default
3) start downloading one of the larger games from the back up
4) open the back up
5) cancel the download
6) proceed with downloading from the back up

[z00k]

Originally posted by hank:

this is the ritual that worked for me:

1) make a new steam library folder (on the drive you want to install to)
2) set it as the default
3) start downloading one of the larger games from the back up
4) open the back up
5) cancel the download
6) proceed with downloading from the back up

man spoke the truth

[Bleepie]

Originally posted by hank:

this is the ritual that worked for me:

1) make a new steam library folder (on the drive you want to install to)
2) set it as the default
3) start downloading one of the larger games from the back up
4) open the back up
5) cancel the download
6) proceed with downloading from the back up

thanks

[StarFaulk64_TTV]

I have a more simplified fix that worked for me.

1) Make sure the drive you want to restore games to is set as the default Steam library folder in settings (i.e D:\)

2) Install a game and then pause it (don't cancel/uninstall this game, else the drive path will be wrong again!)

3) Then go back into restore games and presto the right drive is selected for restoring your games to!

For the game we download/paused, just resume the download and that will be on the correct drive too