New Laptop; old external hard drive with games

[rambo_fox]

Question is, can I get Steam to recognize my games that are already in the old external hard drive, or do I need to download them all from scratch all over again? Should I delete the ones that were in there before?

[Pscht]

Make sure the external drive is running before you start Steam. If you have enough space on the internal drive you can move the files by right-clicking on the game, properties, local files, move install folder. Depending on your download bandwidth and hard drive speed/USB connection that might take longer, though.

[RPG Gamer Man]

https://help.steampowered.com/en/faqs/view/4578-18A7-C819-8620

"Preventing this issue
External Hard Drives
External hard drives are not recommended for use with Steam or Steam's games. Aside from many potential performance issues, external hard drives may connect or disconnect from the computer at inopportune times as part of their normal operations. If you encounter this issue with an external drive, install Steam and your games to an internal drive instead."

Steam support says not to use external hard drives. So you will lose your games at your own risk.
Last edited by RPG Gamer Man; 2 minutes ago

[rambo_fox]

Originally posted by RPG Gamer Man:

https://help.steampowered.com/en/faqs/view/4578-18A7-C819-8620

"Preventing this issue
External Hard Drives
External hard drives are not recommended for use with Steam or Steam's games. Aside from many potential performance issues, external hard drives may connect or disconnect from the computer at inopportune times as part of their normal operations. If you encounter this issue with an external drive, install Steam and your games to an internal drive instead."

Steam support says not to use external hard drives. So you will lose your games at your own risk.
Last edited by RPG Gamer Man; 2 minutes ago

I have no problem with losing my games, since the data tend to be saved in the cloud anyway. All I want to know is if I should delete the games on the external hard drive and redownload them all over again or not.

[rambo_fox]

Originally posted by Pscht:

Make sure the external drive is running before you start Steam. If you have enough space on the internal drive you can move the files by right-clicking on the game, properties, local files, move install folder. Depending on your download bandwidth and hard drive speed/USB connection that might take longer, though.

The games aren't showing up as being downloaded at all, even though they're on my external harddrive. Steam made a new library on my external hard drive. I copy-and-pasted all the games there, but it didn't do anything.

[J4MESOX4D]

Originally posted by rambo_fox:

Originally posted by Pscht:

Make sure the external drive is running before you start Steam. If you have enough space on the internal drive you can move the files by right-clicking on the game, properties, local files, move install folder. Depending on your download bandwidth and hard drive speed/USB connection that might take longer, though.

The games aren't showing up as being downloaded at all, even though they're on my external harddrive. Steam made a new library on my external hard drive. I copy-and-pasted all the games there, but it didn't do anything.

If the library doesn't have a path to the pasted folders then they will not be discovered/detected. Simply pasting the folders in isn't enough and you also need the App Manifest file for each game.

[rambo_fox]

Originally posted by J4MESOX4D:

Originally posted by rambo_fox:

The games aren't showing up as being downloaded at all, even though they're on my external harddrive. Steam made a new library on my external hard drive. I copy-and-pasted all the games there, but it didn't do anything.

If the library doesn't have a path to the pasted folders then they will not be discovered/detected. Simply pasting the folders in isn't enough and you also need the App Manifest file for each game.

Here's a better description of what happened: I now have two Steam Libraries on my external hard-drive. One for the new computer that Steam automatically created and one for my old computer. Steam won't allow me to have two libraries in the same hard drive, so I tried cut-and-pasting all of the games in the old D-Drive library into the new D-Drive library. Even though the new D-Drive library is recognized on my Steam App with recently downloaded games, it won't recognize the games that are already there. Should I simply re-download the games from scratch and delete the old D-Drive files to save space, or am I missing something about cut-and-pasting to a new location. You said that there needs to be a "Steam Manifest" for each game. Do I need to cut and paste that separately?

[J4MESOX4D]

Originally posted by rambo_fox:

Originally posted by J4MESOX4D:

If the library doesn't have a path to the pasted folders then they will not be discovered/detected. Simply pasting the folders in isn't enough and you also need the App Manifest file for each game.

Here's a better description of what happened: I now have two Steam Libraries on my external hard-drive. One for the new computer that Steam automatically created and one for my old computer. Steam won't allow me to have two libraries in the same hard drive, so I tried cut-and-pasting all of the games in the old D-Drive library into the new D-Drive library. Even though the new D-Drive library is recognized on my Steam App with recently downloaded games, it won't recognize the games that are already there. Should I simply re-download the games from scratch and delete the old D-Drive files to save space, or am I missing something about cut-and-pasting to a new location. You said that there needs to be a "Steam Manifest" for each game. Do I need to cut and paste that separately?

It's probably best just to download from scratch if you don't want to get into a muddle. Even if you have a library created and the game files added within, the library will not detect the game as being installed without a directory pathway link and manifest file. I've always found it best just to install stuff from scratch and only externally back-up any non-cloud save game files. If you have games that are really big then maybe do it the copy and paste way, otherwise just start from the beginning with a fresh install.

[rambo_fox]

Originally posted by J4MESOX4D:

Originally posted by rambo_fox:

Here's a better description of what happened: I now have two Steam Libraries on my external hard-drive. One for the new computer that Steam automatically created and one for my old computer. Steam won't allow me to have two libraries in the same hard drive, so I tried cut-and-pasting all of the games in the old D-Drive library into the new D-Drive library. Even though the new D-Drive library is recognized on my Steam App with recently downloaded games, it won't recognize the games that are already there. Should I simply re-download the games from scratch and delete the old D-Drive files to save space, or am I missing something about cut-and-pasting to a new location. You said that there needs to be a "Steam Manifest" for each game. Do I need to cut and paste that separately?

It's probably best just to download from scratch if you don't want to get into a muddle. Even if you have a library created and the game files added within, the library will not detect the game as being installed without a directory pathway link and manifest file. I've always found it best just to install stuff from scratch and only externally back-up any non-cloud save game files. If you have games that are really big then maybe do it the copy and paste way, otherwise just start from the beginning with a fresh install.

And any tips on how to find out that the games have cloud saves or local saves?

[J4MESOX4D]

Originally posted by rambo_fox:

Originally posted by J4MESOX4D:

It's probably best just to download from scratch if you don't want to get into a muddle. Even if you have a library created and the game files added within, the library will not detect the game as being installed without a directory pathway link and manifest file. I've always found it best just to install stuff from scratch and only externally back-up any non-cloud save game files. If you have games that are really big then maybe do it the copy and paste way, otherwise just start from the beginning with a fresh install.

And any tips on how to find out that the games have cloud saves or local saves?

Sadly this info is only really available on the store pages of each game. You can however locate your documents folder to get a rough idea of which games have local saves and then copy all that data onto a storage device. Pasting this in to a new documents folder once again wont see the folders discovered so it's best to start the respective game, let a save file be created and then overwrite that with your old save file, then it'll be detected.

[Jammen]

Hey so I know this post is a couple of months old. But I just found a way that worked for me.
First I need to say that my hard drive is not external. I have 2 internal hard drives and the smaller one with my operating system died. I replaced just that hard drive and the other one contained all my games.
I still think this can apply though. It was just easier with no loading time for me because I reinstalled steam on to the hard drive with all my games this time, but did not have to reinstall anything.

If you can access the "SteamLibrary" folder containing your games on the hard drive with them, copy the contents of inside this folder. Then delete the "steamapps" folder in the new location that steam was downloaded. Inside the "Steam" folder you should be in now, paste the contents that you have copied.
Exit and restart steam, go to library, and you should have all your games listed that you previously had downloaded.

[Iceira]

plug external disk to new pc,
install steam ofc. enter setting then steam download add multi librarys
to the old disk. ( you might want to repair or moived each game to new pc or keep them om external.

ps.
then you do be prepare it might validate content per game after move, i have seen it before even on freshly installed game then you move its content , and NO i dont know what trigger this. steam has the clues here, something cant have same checksum or what ever it is.

cant say this is the right way to do it depend on a total move or per game but it can do both over time one game each time. can be seen as best choise so you dont have a pc that is lock doing the long process. ( and why 1 game only can be seen as best advice so you can play then its done. )

things has change sense storage management update, thats my point here, i have seen steam dont delete external units games for not been online.