Recover games after Windows re-install?

[OkAs]

Recently, I re-installed Windows 7 from the disc, creating backups of all the Steam games I wanted to preserve. I took the file for the game directly from the old "Steam/steamapps/common" directory, and placed them into the same directory for Steam on the new Windows 7 install. However, I can't see these games in my Steam library menu.

Is there a way to get Steam to "see" these games? Both directories were the default location, the only thing I changed was to move the original game files from the Windows.old directory to the new Steam directory, so I would not have to download everything again.

Thanks for any advice!

[The Giving One]

Check this out...there is a guide on how to restore them.

https://support.steampowered.com/kb_article.php?ref=8794-yphv-2033

EDIT...It may be a good idea to verify the game cache for game files you move after you restore them just in case. I alwasy like to do it twice to make sure it does a good job.

[Satoru]

When you install the game, it will see the local files and then use them. It takes a while to validate the files and it will download a bit of data but not everything.

[OkAs]

oh, okay. that solved it for me- i didn't realize clicking 'install' would do anything but download it again. thaks!

[Merlin88]

All you need to do is reinstall Steam, click Steam>Settings>Storage then add the drives that contain your game installs. Steam should pick them up and show as playable.

It will install any anti-cheat software you haven't already installed and possibly some updates but you shouldn't need to validate each game to play them.

Tested and validated this method 10 May 2024 with no issues.

[Steve]

This thread was quite old before the recent post, so we're locking it to prevent confusion.