Steam Mover question

DeSelby83

sorry if this has been asked before. just a quick question about steam mover. im using it just to free up space on my laptop so i can transfer on what i want to play instead of having to re download the games.
if i use steam mover to move a game onto an external harddrive does it remove the files from my laptop completely?
thanks

Lu Tze

Im pretty sure steam has a backup game files function which may be better for this. I have had some issues with steam mover before, but it normally works grand

Antar Bolaeisk

Never use the Steam backup function, it's a pain in the rear end

Steam mover will remove the files from your laptop, it creates what's called a symlink (basically a shortcut) that points to the folder on your external drive. You'd still be able to launch the game provided the external HDD is plugged in and retains the same drive letter but unless everything is running through USB3 I'd imagine there'd be a lot of pop-in.

DeSelby83

thanks for the replies, ye im not planning on running from the external hard drive, just as storage to free up space on my laptop.

marco_polo

DeSelby83 wrote: »

thanks for the replies, ye im not planning on running from the external hard drive, just as storage to free up space on my laptop.

If it purely for backup your probably better off to just cut and past the game folders from the SteamApps folder onto the external drive yourself, as then you won't be cluttering it up with symlinks that may not always map to the correct location.

I don't even bother with steam mover at all anymore since the facility to allows multiple steamapps folders on different drives was added.

To move a game now, all you have to do now is move the game directory from the first to the second steamApps folder, right click on the game and 'Delete Local content' (perfectly safe once you have already moved the game to the second folder). Then reinstall selecting the second steamapps directory as the install location.

Steam will automatically re-detect the game file and you're are good to go. Since you don't intend on playing from the extrenal drive though, the additional steps aren't nescessary for you.

hydr

But how many games do people really play? my guess is maybe people switchbetween two or three games for periods, then they move over to other games. well, a 80GB SSD is enough for at least 10 game installs. way do people need to have all their steam games installed all the time.

Genghiz Cohen

hydr wrote: »

a 80GB SSD is enough for at least 10 game installs. way do people need to have all their steam games installed all the time.

Heh, maybe for you, but I like games with graphics.

ArmA 2 takes a ton of space on my SSD.

Dravokivich

hydr wrote: »

But how many games do people really play? my guess is maybe people switchbetween two or three games for periods, then they move over to other games. well, a 80GB SSD is enough for at least 10 game installs. way do people need to have all their steam games installed all the time.

Once I buy a game, I download, so it's avail to play when I want to play it. Also, it gives a sense of finality to the transaction. It's nice to know the product is available for me in a library, but what use is the library if I can't get to it, when I want it.