Best way for Steam to span drives

[Craig234]

I have a 1TB pretty much for games, mostly Steam, and it's about full.

What's the best way for Steam to use a second drive as well - a virtual drive? How?

 

[novasatori]

symbolic links
this is what i use in windows to manage them:
http://schinagl.priv.at/nt/hardlinkshellext/hardlinkshellext.html

 

[Rifter]

symbolic links
this is what i use in windows to manage them:
http://schinagl.priv.at/nt/hardlinkshellext/hardlinkshellext.html

100% this, i use that method to put games i play alot on my SSD.

You could also just buy another 1TB and go RAID 0, thats what i did for my games drive, more space and more performance.

 

[Elcs]

Look up a program called Steam Mover or Steam Tool.

Will move your 'Selected Game' directory to another drive and create an NTFS junction for them. Really handy and convenient.

A must for someone who has a large Steam collection and wants to move things onto an SSD (and back again) with ease.

 

[Craig234]

Look up a program called Steam Mover or Steam Tool.

Will move your 'Selected Game' directory to another drive and create an NTFS junction for them. Really handy and convenient.

A must for someone who has a large Steam collection and wants to move things onto an SSD (and back again) with ease.

Thanks to the posters. As I understand, Steam can point to one location.

I'm not trying to move things around, I'm trying to add a second 1tb hard drive for more speace.

The Raid0 I'm not sure about - if nothing else the conversion of the existing 1TB.

I'm also not sure when you say 'move' the directory. I'm guessing it's symbolic links that I'll need to set up.

 

[novasatori]

with that link shell installed you can copy some games off your 1tb to your 2nd drive then right click drag them back to the steam folder on the 1tb as symbolic links, it is pretty easy to manage.

 

[darkewaffle]

I just set up junctions via command line, though I think you need to do some extra work to make it function in XP. But it's pretty easy and needs no extra software or anything.

No idea if it's the same as a Symbolic Link though.

 

[Fox5]

If you want to move all your games to the new drive, you can just move the SteamApps folder and then reinstall the Steam. If you want to move some, use SteamMover, steam will only install games to the Steamapps location but steammover will easily create junction points for you and copy the files to another location.

 

[PrincessFrosty]

Just be a bit careful with junction points and symbolic links, they're below the OS level so no apps can tell they're being redirected to different physical parts of the drive that can cause some issues when the target drives are removed, become inaccessible or if you try and use tools to error check or defrag for example.

By all means use them, just read up about them a bit first, I wouldn't recommend novices do this, if you're really low on space then grab a 2Tb-3Tb hard drive instead.

Same goes for RAID 0, that has increased failure risk and shouldn't be used by novices unless you know what you're doing.

 

[CPA]

Just be a bit careful with junction points and symbolic links, they're below the OS level so no apps can tell they're being redirected to different physical parts of the drive that can cause some issues when the target drives are removed, become inaccessible or if you try and use tools to error check or defrag for example.

By all means use them, just read up about them a bit first, I wouldn't recommend novices do this, if you're really low on space then grab a 2Tb-3Tb hard drive instead.

Same goes for RAID 0, that has increased failure risk and shouldn't be used by novices unless you know what you're doing.

Yeah, but it would take days to redownload everything.

I use SteamTools, but I also just uninstall games that I have either completed or know I won't be playing anytime soon. Oh, and I only have a 500GB HD.

 

[abaez]

http://www.traynier.com/software/steammover

 

[shortylickens]

Yeah, but it would take days to redownload everything.

I use SteamTools, but I also just uninstall games that I have either completed or know I won't be playing anytime soon. Oh, and I only have a 500GB HD.

Nope. Just close Steam. Copy the files over (all my stuff is in the Steam folder) reopen steam and set the other location. It should see everything there and NOT try to redownload. Thats what I have to do every year or so when my game system goes down. Never ever had to download a game twice from steam. Just copy shit over, its smart enough to do the rest.