Backing up steam library

[It's Not Lupus]

What's the better way to backup (and then restore) one's steam library: Steam's built-in backup feature or just copying the entire Steam folder and other library folders? What are your experiences? I've read the backup feature may be unreliable.

 

[Anteaus]

The backup feature is great and I suggest it. The current version is actually quite a bit different from the earlier Steam backup routine. Originally, the game would be compressed and an executable created to restore it, much like what is used on a steamworks disc. This was somewhat flaky. The current version simply compresses the files and is quite reliable. I have had zero issues with it.

 

[It's Not Lupus]

Do you backup your entire library at once or individually?

 

[BrightCandle]

All the times in the past I have done them all together its ended up being corrupted in some way. I tend to do them individually now.

 

[It's Not Lupus]

There seems to be issues with a base game and its expansions and mods, like half-life and counter-strike, but... other standalone games seem OK.

Also, steam apparently doesn't like long filenames because it freezes, despite steam giving the default name for a backup with mulitple games.

I'm doing them individually, but tried to group the HL stuff together.

 

[Dankk]

I always just back up the "common" folder in the Steamapps directory, which contains all of the games' program files. The only exception to this are a few of the Source games which are not stored in common.

It's also a good idea to back up your Windows Documents folder, where most of your gamesaves are usually kept.

 

[Nvidiaguy07]

The backup feature is great and I suggest it. The current version is actually quite a bit different from the earlier Steam backup routine. Originally, the game would be compressed and an executable created to restore it, much like what is used on a steamworks disc. This was somewhat flaky. The current version simply compresses the files and is quite reliable. I have had zero issues with it.

whats the advantage to backing up games, and why would you want to do it? The only thing I can think of is that you have a metered internet, and dont wanna have to use up data to re-download. Or maybe a really slow internet?

 

[BSim500]

whats the advantage to backing up games, and why would you want to do it? The only thing I can think of is that you have a metered internet, and dont wanna have to use up data to re-download. Or maybe a really slow internet?

Or simply you have a lot of games?

 

[Anteaus]

whats the advantage to backing up games, and why would you want to do it? The only thing I can think of is that you have a metered internet, and dont wanna have to use up data to re-download. Or maybe a really slow internet?

I have many games and quite a few of them have large installs. I have a 150 Mbps pipe and a 400 GB cap so internet really isn't an issue; however, that might not be true in the future if I move or downgrade so by storing them locally that's one less thing I need to worry about. Also, they decompress far faster than I can download them. I just throw them all on an external drive and forget about them. I certainly don't want to burn bandwidth on something I've already downloaded already.

I back them up one at a time and always increase the file size so that it doesn't get split. I have never experienced a corrupt file. I wouldn't group them today. Each game backup is in its own subdirectory.

 

[It's Not Lupus]

Finished backing up with steam. Compressed, it's 226GB. Did it individually, except for games with expansions that installed into the base game folder. I tested restoring, and it seems fine.

 

[ImpulsE69]

I am guessing this does not grab your saves that aren't in the folder? Many of these games save out in your C:\users etc folders..annoyng as hell.

 

[Crow550]

Steam Backup Tool is the best I have used: http://www.overclock.net/t/969143/open-source-automatic-steam-backup-restore-tool