downloading steam games?? transferable?

c-note

hey dudes
got me a 5850 card with free download for Dirt 2 on steam.

the trouble is the dl is 10.5GB and my internet has a 10gb/month rolling limit (usually hovers around 7-9 GB)
meaning it could take up to 6 months to download the game..

MY QUESTION:
a family member lives in another part of the country.
can i get him to download steam... login to my account and then download dirt 2 and then just copy the files over to my computer to my steam folder??

i'm not concerned with the legalities just wondering if this is possible or will the downloaded data "know" it only belongs on the computer it was downloaded on??

ED E

c-note wrote: »

hey dudes
got me a 5850 card with free download for Dirt 2 on steam.

the trouble is the dl is 10.5GB and my internet has a 10gb/month rolling limit (usually hovers around 7-9 GB)
meaning it could take up to 6 months to download the game..

MY QUESTION:
a family member lives in another part of the country.
can i get him to download steam... login to my account and then download dirt 2 and then just copy the files over to my computer to my steam folder??

i'm not concerned with the legalities just wondering if this is possible or will the downloaded data "know" it only belongs on the computer it was downloaded on??

This is the wrong section, but to answer your question:

Start the download on your machine, this will create the necessary directories . Now shut down steam. Then you can copy over the data packages for the game from any other steam copy of the game. AFAIK they are .gcfs, at least for source games. Next restart steam and give it a sec, it'll find the files you copied and jump to like 80%. Let the DL finish and you're good to go.

lmimmfn

ive multiple steam folders from different OS installs, simplest way is:
1. Get him to login with your account
2. Get him to download Dirt 2
3. Take a copy of his whole steam folder and call it Steam1 on your PC
4. Play

Ok, so its not as cool as having all your games in the 1 steam folder, however Steam gets too big anyway once you've downloaded some games, ive 60Gig and 80gig steam folders, theyre much easier to copy around than 140Gigs.

cherryghost

er....

1. Your relative downloads Dirt2 on your account..
2. He right clicks Dirt2 in steam once downloaded, backs up game onto external HD/USB key
3. Plug in HD/USB key, run the setup file steam created.


done.

c-note

sorry about posting in the wrong forum...
couldnt see "pc games" in the games section. did a search for steam which linked to several forums so got lazzzy and decided the guys in graphics would likely know the answer to the question!!

thanks for the replies
good to know it will work. i'll give him a call and see if he'll co-operate!

cherryghost

c-note wrote: »

sorry about posting in the wrong forum...
couldnt see "pc games" in the games section. did a search for steam which linked to several forums so got lazzzy and decided the guys in graphics would likely know the answer to the question!!

thanks for the replies
good to know it will work. i'll give him a call and see if he'll co-operate!

If he doesnt, just dont send him a christmas card

Overheal

if he installs the game on his machine there is the option to backup the Files to removable media. If you give him an external drive he can port them over to your machine.

Thats certainly a sizable download. The sooner ye pats can get done away with the download caps the better. All the while US ISPs are starting to creep them into markets where they dont have any competition: anyone who wants internet has to just bend over and take it. Meanwhile my legal monthly bandwidth easily hovers around 100-200gb.

Effluo

Hey,
I found out about this when i wanted to reinstall windows, but didn't want to have to install all the games again!

It's very simple.

1. Download steam
2. Download DIRT
3. go into program files
3. Select Steam
4. Copy "Steamapps" folder
5. Paste the folder in the Steam file on your pc!

If you have other games installed already on your own pc then just past the bits that were not already on the pc

cherryghost

why are you making it so awkward!? (except overheal). theres a backup option in steam once you download it

lmimmfn

cherryghost wrote: »

why are you making it so awkward!? (except overheal). theres a backup option in steam once you download it

its even easier just to copy the steam folder

c-note

thanks for the replies

he got it downloaded last night...
onto an external hdd which i'll get over chirstmas..

its good to be able to backup your game files