Can I lose game progress when I replace my SSD drive

[Lady_Kay]

I want to replace my SSD that only has 512GB, to 2TB. Unfortunately, I don’t have a second slot; so the internal SSD needs to replaced with a new one. This means I have to reinstall Windows.

How can I keep my games progress save?

[Bad 💀 Motha]

Is this a Desktop or Laptop? Most all Desktops and Laptops that support NVME have at minimum, 2x slots.

[Lady_Kay]

Its a laptop, this is the name : MSI Katana GF76 12UD-003NL. I do not have a second slot it says.

[Illusion of Progress]

There's multiple routes, and maybe some combination of them.

Some games have Steam cloud saving. Not all do, but many might retain their save data.

If you're open to cloning your existing drive to the new one (there's free software that can do this), you could get an external enclosure (has a small added cost) and connect the new drive as a secondary external drive, clone it, and then switch the new one in.

Alternatively, for games without cloud saving, you'll need to back up any existing data. You can do this manually, or with some game save manager. You can do this to a USB flash drive, or to the cloud (and online storage service).

[Dutchgamer1982]

2 methods 1 without needed another computer


step 1 buy a large enough classic harddrive, connerct it in your system by sata, 1 TB should do
step 2 set this drive in your bios as the drive to boot from, partition it, set 600gb aside on partion b and the rest on a
step 3 install windows or linux on this drive on partitian a
step 4 now logged in copy the full content of your m.2 to partition b
step 5 turn of pc, swap m.2 for new one, turn on pc.. boot back to partion a
step 6 copy the content of partion b to this new m.2.
step 7 turn off, take out the HD, set in bios new m.2. as bootdrive

DONE!


the other method is similair.. you would need another computer that does have 2 free m.2 slots.. and boots from something else
you just than can plug in your current and new m.2. and copy the file directly.

[Bad 💀 Motha]

Just buy a cheap external caddy that supports NVME PCIE Gen4x4 inside and USB 3.2 outside.
Then you can hookup the new ssd.

What is your budget for the new drive? As I could link some drives and the caddy.

Honestly if the Laptop only supports one internal NVME then why not buy a 4TB

Best bet is forget Steam Cloud Backup. Use GameSaveManager and do it yourself. Easy to backup and restore with that.

[Lady_Kay]

Hi all, thank you for the answers.

[Lady_Kay]

@Batmotha I don’t want to spend more than €250 if that is reasonable.

[_I_]

grab gamesavemanager
it can save any game to usb or anywhere and can restore it later
along with steam cloud for games that support it when its enabled