Steam on Multiple Hard Drives

[Tomahawk0201]

I got a bunch of questions to ask, so allow me to explain my situation first, then I'll shoot off a list of questions.

I recently got an Asus G751 laptop, and on this particular model (the G751 series, not to be mistaken with the very similar G750's) it comes preinstalled with Steam on the C drive (it also has a button on the keyboard to open Steam, which is cool.. I guess). The G751 comes with two hard drives, a C drive wtih ~320GB, and a D drive with 500GB; that's all well and good, except I was thinking of geting a 1TB external hard drive to load up Steam games and videos and other stuff that I will not be needing with me when hauling my computer around.

So that's where I'm at, hopefully that's cohesive enough. Now for the questions:

-Since Steam is pre-installed, and Steam doesn't like running off multiple hard drives, When I get an external HDD, will I have to uninstall steam from the C drive in order to run it off the external HDD?

-On that note, would the Steam Key on the key board still open steam when running off the external HDD (asuming I'd have to uninstall steam from the C drive)?

-Also kinda related to the first question, If Steam works off a local HDD as well as a external HDD, would there be any compatibility issues, say when logging in, or playing a game or something of that nature?

-Do external HDD behave any differently than internal HDD, as far as Steam is concerned (or in general for that matter)?

So that's all I got for now. Feel free to answer one of them, all of them, none of them, or just rant about something. I'm sure there'll be more questions as I learn some more about all this.

[Farmageddon]

Well, to answer some questions:
>Since Steam is pre-installed, and Steam doesn't like running off multiple hard drives, When I get an external HDD, will I have to uninstall steam from the C drive in order to run it off the external HDD?
Steam as a program can just be fine on the c drive

You can add places to install games on, for example a folder on your D:\ drive
Go to settings, downloads and then select steam folders
Add a map on the desired hard drive

>Also kinda related to the first question, If Steam works off a local HDD as well as a external HDD, would there be any compatibility issues, say when logging in, or playing a game or something of that nature?
Depends, as long as steam isnt running, it shouldn't be a problem (when the drive is disconnected and steam is turned on, it could ♥♥♥♥♥)

BUT!!!!!!:
-Do external HDD behave any differently than internal HDD, as far as Steam is concerned (or in general for that matter)?
Its read an write speeds that matter

Here is a simple overview:
USB 1.1 = 12 Mbit/s
Firefire 400 = 400 Mbit/s
USB 2.0 = 480 Mbit/s
FireWire 800 = 800 Mbit/s
USB 3.0 = 5 Gbit/s (+/- 625mb)
eSATA = Up to 6 Gbit/s right now as it depend on the internal SATA chip.
Thunderbolt = 10 Gbit/s × 2 (2 channels)
Thunderbolt 2 = 20 Gbit/s

i used a external drive with a firewire connector, it worked pretty well, only a bit slow on loading screens sometimes

a regular hdd would use either 3gbit or 6gbit, so it could be possible, You just want either firewire or USB 3

[videogames]

Why not swap one of your HDs with a bigger internal 2.5" drive? You should be able to find some good 1tb drives for less money than a decent external, and you'd get a hell of a lot more performance out of it.

[Tomahawk0201]

Farma,
To my understanding then, it sounds like I could run Steam off the C drive, but have installed games mapped to the external HDD. So for instance under this set-up, I could log into Steam, plug in the external HDD, and run Steam games off the external HDD (with the steam app itself installed to the C drive) without many issues.

-So I could potentially, as long as the mapping is done correctly, run games off an external hard drive, and also have games installed to the D drive?

Also, I was looking at some USB 3.0 external hard drives or an SSD (though SSD's are a little pricy for me at the moment).



Videogames,
I never thought of that actually, since right now, I haven't installed anything on the D drive that would definatley be a valid route.

-Any idea how much 1TB internal HDD go for? (though a Google search is 3 clicks away, but whatever)

-Well, in that case, I would have a spare 500GB hard drive sitting around, any thoughs what I might then do with it?

-You say 2.5" hard drive. I presume that's the size compatible with my model of laptop. On the note of compatability, is there anything other than size (and cost I suppose) that would limit what hard drive I could get?

[zombie cat]

Originally posted by videogames:

Why not swap one of your HDs with a bigger internal 2.5" drive? You should be able to find some good 1tb drives for less money than a decent external, and you'd get a hell of a lot more performance out of it.

that's very true, I would just get 2 1 tb drives, and shift everyone over to the new drives and use the old as external backup.

Here are the fastest drives with the highest capacity.
http://www.amazon.com/HGST-Travelstar-2-5-Inch-7200RPM-Mobile/dp/B0097LG9U8

[Tomahawk0201]

Zombie Cat,
Thats a good thought, I could always use an extra 500GB drive for back-ups. In the past I've backed-up to like 7 CD's, back when I had an old dinosaur of a computer

[Evil D007]

Why not leave steam installed on the first harddrive. When you download game, steam will give you a choice on which harddrive to download the game or games to. It will be a drop down box.

[Farmageddon]

Originally posted by Tomahawk0201:

Farma,
To my understanding then, it sounds like I could run Steam off the C drive, but have installed games mapped to the external HDD. So for instance under this set-up, I could log into Steam, plug in the external HDD, and run Steam games off the external HDD (with the steam app itself installed to the C drive) without many issues.

-So I could potentially, as long as the mapping is done correctly, run games off an external hard drive, and also have games installed to the D drive?

Also, I was looking at some USB 3.0 external hard drives or an SSD (though SSD's are a little pricy for me at the moment).

I'm not sure how steam will react when it cant find the hard where the games are installed (if you install them on an external and not turn it on)

You can select any hard drive to install games on, i have multiple hdd's in my pc, i can choose any one i like, i just stick to my d drive though, you can select multiple drives btw

SSD's offer instant read/write times, which is great for the OS, it means that everything loads quickly, whereas a HDD has to spin and find data
For games, this means practicly 0 loading time (from what ive heard, didnt try it myself)

I wouldn't use them for games, too expensive for the size at the moment imo
I do run my OS off the SSD and i love it

And make sure your laptop has usb 3.0 connectors, otherwise its all pointless (it could google it but you should check your model, before i say anything incorrect)

Originally posted by Evil.D007:

Why not leave steam installed on the first harddrive. When you download game, steam will give you a choice on which harddrive to download the game or games to. It will be a drop down box.

You'll have to add the install location first, otherwise it would only show the default location on the c drive

[Tomahawk0201]

My computer has 3 USB 3.0 ports on it, so hooking up an exernal HDD won't be an issue.

Well, I'm leaning towards an internal 1TB HDD. My only quarrel with it, is that I'd like to have ample space open for 3D modeling, and photo and video editing/creation for school and for hobby. Having an external HDD would be nice to load up all the stuff I don't need to bring around to where ever I need to work; with an internal drive, I suspect I'll get 'triger happy', if you will, and install all sorts of garbage. On the contrary, an internal drive is cheaper (per unit of storage it seems like) and would be more convinient and consolidated which is nice too.
This is a decsision that I gotta make in the end, but your opinions and past experiences always help!

[Nate2crush]

Ok so on this topic, I run on a win 8.1 pro OS laptop and my steam and its games are installed on a my main drive c/... its an 125gb SSD... well I ran out of space and for some reason when I select the choice to install a game on another HDD (my 2TB external drive) it wont let me.

any ideas?

my friend recommended steamtools but it seems that that is used for older systems. and since mine is brand new idk what to do.

[Tev]

Originally posted by Nate2crush:

Ok so on this topic, I run on a win 8.1 pro OS laptop and my steam and its games are installed on a my main drive c/... its an 125gb SSD... well I ran out of space and for some reason when I select the choice to install a game on another HDD (my 2TB external drive) it wont let me.

any ideas?

my friend recommended steamtools but it seems that that is used for older systems. and since mine is brand new idk what to do.

Steam > Settings > Downloads > Steam Library Folders.

Or why doesn't it let you? Any message?