Noob question. Is it possible to swap ssd's like game cartridges?

[ynothc]

Trying to organize some of the games I own and was wondering if I fill a few ssd's would I be able to swap them out whenever i feel like playing whatever game is on them.

Also, I'm building another system and was wondering if I could swap them into that system as well.

Couldn't really find anything searching web similar to this idea. Surely some of you out there with huge steam libraries would know. Or how do you manage large libraries, also when changing/upgrading pc's.

OS would be on seperate drive, other ssd's would just be used for game storage.

Is this even possible?

[Bad 💀 Motha]

If the Motherboard supports AHCI + Hot-Plugging; yes
Just ensure none of the game clients are running prior to a drive swap.

[ynothc]

Originally posted by Bad-Motha:

If the Motherboard supports AHCI + Hot-Plugging; yes
Just ensure none of the game clients are running prior to a drive swap.

Thanks for quick response. Is this common in motherboards or just a feature in high end? I'll try to look for some info on mine.

[Air]

One thing to note is that you'd have to restart Steam each time you did a swap. Steam only detects library changes on startup.

[ynothc]

Originally posted by Air:

One thing to note is that you'd have to restart Steam each time you did a swap. Steam only detects library changes on startup.

Thats understandable. I would power down pc before swapping drives anyway.

My main goal would be to download (depending on drive size) the entire bioshock collection, witcher collection, far cry collection, and so forth to an ssd and keep them there and be able to swap out drives as I feel like playing them as well as what system I feel like playing them on.

Guess this sounds like a do-able idea.

[Bad 💀 Motha]

You just exit your game clients, swap secondary drive, done. Just like USB
It's that simple.

Just create a Steam Library on each drive, one at a time.

[Dr. Fronkensteen]

There should be cases with external hot swap bays. I had one by thermaltake on my old computer.

[The Rock God]

Originally posted by Barf the Mawg:

There should be cases with external hot swap bays. I had one by thermaltake on my old computer.

On some cases all of the drive bays are swappable from the outside. Make sure not to accidentally pull the OS drive out. Not that I've ever done that late at night when I was tired/distracted...