Downloading and storing games for later

[Da1TruPhoenix]

I've been toying with this idea, but I'm not sure if can actually be done. My internet isn't very good and a lot of games I own take up a lot of disk space. I would want to minimize the time i have to wait to download a game and save some space on my computer's hard drive. But I do have an external hard drive that could possibly hold most of my library. Is it possible for me to download a game and move it to an external hard drive, and then move it back when i want to install it on my computer? Can this be done? iIf so, what would be the best way to do it? Or is there more efficient way of doing this?

[TeKraken]

Yes it can be done.

You need to copy the folder:

:\Steam\steamapps\common\whichevergame

and the associated appmanifest_XXX.acf file from :\Steam\steamapps

XXX = the game ID number which can be found in the URL of the store page.

Alternately you can just copy the whole of your steamapps folder and then update it with any new downloads and .acf files.

[Kargor]

I wouldn't try moving installed games to a disk that's not always available, but you can certainly store a backup there. Steam has a built-in backup feature that should make it rather trivial.

[TeKraken]

Kargor eredeti hozzászólása:

Steam has a built-in backup feature that should make it rather trivial.

Should. But it can be unreliable. And if you do use it you are better off doing one game at a time.

[G_Sergeant]

You mean you don't want to Re-download the game after Removing it ?
You need to copy the folder:
:\Steam\steamapps\common\whichevergame
and the associated appmanifest_(appid).acf file from :\Steam\steamapps
*if you want to save it as a "SFX" to install it easier,use an archiver to Create a "SFX" Archive and Extract it later easily to where you want ...