Wiping PC and saving game downloads.

[Marshmelon]

Hi, my computer has been running strange and I am pretty sure I have ended up with a few viruses that I cant seem to remove as well as a pile of old files and application that are clogging up my drives. I have decided to do a full windows wipe, deleting all files on my computer, but I am hesitant on deleting large game files due to being on capped wifi. Re-downloading these games all at once would take up more than 1/3 of my monthly wifi. Right now, Windows is installed on my 250g sdd and my games are on a separate 500g ssd with the majority of my programs. I want to wipe everything off both drives except for the game files. I have a external 500g drive that I am considering moving my game files onto. Then, once my computer is completely reset, move back onto my 500g sdd. Is this the best option? What files will I need to include in order to make sure the games will work when I reinstall steam? Thanks.

[Set-115689]

You would need to move all the folders via steam or create backups. Not cut/paste. Would take a long time.

Don't forget saved games files in documents on the os drive.

back up - click on steam in the upper left hand corner and back/restore games. Change the file size to a larger one like 99999 etc...

move files - click on a game , select properties and local files and move folder.

[upcoast]

Just copy the common folder to whatever other HDD and if a game doesn't have cloud save copy those out of doc and or my games.

[Overseer]

You can copy the entire \Steam\ and the \SteamLibrary\ folders. As long as they end up on the same drive letters Steam will just complain about missing Registry entries and reinstall itself. Then each individual game might go through that as well.
I've done that a couple times. It works without the GB downloads.

Just be careful with games that store data in personal Windows folders like Documents and the worst culprits who save them in AppData. So make at least a backup of your User folders.

[Supafly]

For game saves look up game save manger. That'll help you backup game saves that are on the computer. Games with cloud saves enabled don't need this.

As for the game files I'd go with Overseer and just copy the entire Steam folder to the new drive. Then change the drive letters so the new drive has the same letter used on the old drive. Be sure to change current Steam drive letter to something else so the drive letter becomes available

For example let's say Steam on the old drive that has the letter D:\

Change old drive to any letter available....I'll use F:\ for this example

Oldrive is no longer D:\ it is F:\
Change Newdrive to D:\

Steam and anything will behave as though they are on the same drive provided they still use a drive with the same designation...D:\

You could copy and paste but you'd need to move app manifest too and may need messing around. Copying everything in the Steam folder as described above reduces any fiddling required. Though if your downloaded library is large it could take some time to transfer them all.

However, you could drop the initial transfer time by working in stages. You''ll need to create folders in each stage so you can select all but one folder when you copy and paste this way....Will mark with ** the folders you'll need to create and place in the same location.

Copy everything inside the Steam** folder except the steamapps folder.
Then copy everything inside the steamapps** folder except the common folder

Steams sorted you can just copy the games from inside the common** folder as needed/wanted. Copy the games you'll be using first and copy the others across as needed at a later time.

[Marshmelon]

Overseer の投稿を引用：

You can copy the entire \Steam\ and the \SteamLibrary\ folders. As long as they end up on the same drive letters Steam will just complain about missing Registry entries and reinstall itself. Then each individual game might go through that as well.
I've done that a couple times. It works without the GB downloads.

Just be careful with games that store data in personal Windows folders like Documents and the worst culprits who save them in AppData. So make at least a backup of your User folders.

Thank you! I have copied everything over and so far it works.