5

Recently got a new pc, put the HDD from old pc into new one, reinstalled Steam however I want to use the library from old pc on new one but keep it on external.

New pc has a SSD which I do not want to fill up so going to put everything going to the external.

Any ideas please?

Marriott81
  • 283
  • 1
  • 3
  • 13
  • I believe you should be able to create a library one another drive in the new Steam install and point it at the one on the old drive, and it should recognize (and verify) the installs. i've yet to try this myself, however. – Xantec Mar 24 '14 at 19:09
  • says folder must be empty, try making a new one and dumping in maybe? – Marriott81 Mar 24 '14 at 19:18
  • This reddit thread says that should work. Worth a try anyway, if you have the free space to temporarily duplicate the data. – Xantec Mar 24 '14 at 19:37
  • Actually looks like the answers here apply to yours as well, although the questions aren't exactly the same.
    http://gaming.stackexchange.com/questions/96370/how-can-i-move-an-installed-game-from-one-steam-library-folder-to-another     – Xantec Mar 24 '14 at 20:07
  • Running games on the external is going to slow the performance down dramatically if you are thinking of doing that... – Dupree3 Mar 24 '14 at 20:50
  • In the end, I followed the link from @Xantec, Basically once steam was installed on my new pc, I could go to the second HDD and double click steam there and it loaded with all of my files in and i could play straight away. I have mounted the second HDD internally in the end for that very reason of it being slow – Marriott81 Mar 25 '14 at 10:17

2 Answers2

12

Go to Steam -> Settings, and find this button:

enter image description here

Click it, and you will see this:

enter image description here

Add the location of your old library found on your HDD there, and Steam will immediately recognize it.

2

According to this reddit thread, it should be possible to create a new steam library on the external drive, and then copy the games from the old install directory to the new library.

Yes. You have to make Steam create the directory first. Then copy the games into the directory afterward. It won't let you create the directory if it isn't empty. Then afterward just install games like normal and it will "detect already installed data" when it tries to install your game and jump to 99% and then complete.

Xantec
  • 3,507
  • 3
  • 21
  • 27