Running Steam from an external hard drive

[Nator Gator]

Hello there, just a couple questions for anyone:

1. I would like to transfer the entire steam client and files to an external hard drive in order to run and play my games from the external hard drive: is that possible and capabale of running games?

2. If I can run my games from an external hrad drive, what type of hard drive would be best?
What type of file formatting? What type of connection speed? Etc.

I don't know a lot about this type of technical stuff so please help as much as possible?

[TeKraken]

What type of connections does your machine have?

Esata or USB3 would be best.
USB2 would work
USB I would not bother tbh.

[Nator Gator]

Mine has 4 USB 3.0 ports, 2 on each side

[검은 늑대]

Yes it is possible to play your games on another Harddrive.

Steam -> Settings/Options -> Downloads -> Steam-Libraryfolder -> Select or Add any Folder.

Sorry if the translation up there is wrong, im using the German Client.

[TeKraken]

USB3 will do fine.

To move steam:

https://support.steampowered.com/kb_article.php?ref=7418-YUBN-8129&l=english

[ReBoot]

It might, must not, but might be possible that running those games on another PC (why else would you use an external drive) might not work, in this case, verify the local game content.

[Nator Gator]

The issue that I have and why I want to load onto an external hard drive is because I do not own a desktop computer, I have a gaming laptop that I received as a gift. Plus I currently don't have the space for a desktop let alone what I already have. It's cheaper for me to buy a $100 external hard drive rather than a $1000 computer.

[검은 늑대]

Originally posted by Nator Gator:

The issue that I have and why I want to load onto an external hard drive is because I do not own a desktop computer, I have a gaming laptop that I received as a gift. Plus I currently don't have the space for a desktop let alone what I already have. It's cheaper for me to buy a $100 external hard drive rather than a $1000 computer.

Of course but you may get some Perfomance problem with external HDs.

[Nator Gator]

Are there any external hard drives that could potentially work though? I've looked at some already, I would just like to know if anyone has any experience doing this and can recommend a particular hard drive.

[ReBoot]

Originally posted by Nator Gator:

Are there any external hard drives that could potentially work though? I've looked at some already, I would just like to know if anyone has any experience doing this and can recommend a particular hard drive.

If possible, get an eSATA one. If not, get an USB3 one. Of course your drive should have good ratings but otherwise, nothing special to concider.

[Kapda]

it works