I want my games back!!!

[Deepblue65]

yesterday my steam crashed so i deleted steam but saved the steamapps folder
i installed new steam i want to know how i get this folder back at his place

[Tev]

Doesn't it just belong to C:\Program Files\Steam\ ? (or Program Files (x86) if you're on a 64-bit OS.)

[Deepblue65]

id put steamapps back at his place but the games didn't appear on my library

[Tev]

They appear as uninstalled? What happens if you try to download them? If they do appear as downloaded once you've done so, remember to Verify the Integrity of Game Cache afterwards.

[celeryman]

If you uninstall Steam, and DON'T move any files/folders, your games will still be installed when you reinstall Steam. You shouldn't have moved them, that wasn't neccessary. Always keep actual back-ups of your Steam games for when this happens.

[Cryptics]

They will appear as uninstalled but if you press install, steam will discover the game file and won't need to redownload.

[celeryman]

Originally posted by Cryptics:

They will appear as uninstalled but if you press install, steam will discover the game file and won't need to redownload.

Good point, forgot about that.

[Tev]

Originally posted by Pokemon Trainer Kitters:

If you uninstall Steam, and DON'T move any files/folders, your games will still be installed when you reinstall Steam. You shouldn't have moved them, that wasn't neccessary. Always keep actual back-ups of your Steam games for when this happens.

Actually, this tells you to move the Steamapps folder away when you do reinstall Steam.

Originally posted by Above link:

Important:

This process will remove Steam and any installed game content from your machine. If reinstalling Steam and Steam games in the near future, please move the Steamapps folder (C:\Program Files\Steam\Steamapps) outside of the Steam directory to prevent your games from being deleted. Additionally, backups of all game content can be created for reinstallation.

[76561198046218186]

I did the same, but I formatted my pc and my account had a reboot/feedback about 7 months to change my avatar I had seven months ago when I had no games.
Missing all my games, my friends are gone and my avatar change.
my account is disabled, do not even let me add friends!
please I need help because I lost many games.

[Walker]

if they are copied back to the right steamapps folder and still dont show up then do a verify cache on each one.

[Walker]

Voidray are you sure you are logging into the correct account?

[TheCodifier]

Originally posted by Pokemon Trainer Kitters:

If you uninstall Steam, and DON'T move any files/folders, your games will still be installed when you reinstall Steam. You shouldn't have moved them, that wasn't neccessary. Always keep actual back-ups of your Steam games for when this happens.

It's exactly the opposite. If you don't move your games before uninstalling Steam, they will all be uninstalled.

Many people got burned by this.

[Eggsplatter]

Happened to me few hrs earlier. Yesterday I played Blops but today I noticed it was vanished completely from Steamapps folder. And also Left4Dead2 was vanished. This indeed is unique happening in the history of Steam problems. I didn't uninstall Steam nor the games. I had also problems to get connected to Steam. It said something like "Installationd failed" and after repair attempt it said "Steam_API.dll missing". Also all the achievemens seem to be gone. Then when I reinstalled Blops from CD, Steam didn't accept it. When I rebooted my PC Steam said this computer is not authorized. After I got this solved I couldnt play Blops. Steam demanded to download the game from the server eventho I already had the game installed. So I let it do the job, waited 3-4 hrs. Now it's finished the installing. This has been a major struggle so if this happens again I will not get back on Steam games. Steam sucks, as I have heard so many times.