Installing Steam on the D: drive?

[Rhezuss]

Is there an easy way now to install Steam and all games on a different drice than the C:?

I'm planning to get a small SSD (120gb) for a boot drive and would like to install all my Steam games on my WD RE4 500gb...

Is that now possible?

 

[acheron]

I think you can just specify the install directory when you first install it, and it will always put all the games there. I had Steam and all the games on my D drive in my old PC.

It's more complicated if you want to split games between different drives, or have the app on one drive and the games on another (my solution: symlinks), but as long as everything is together it should be easy.

 

[Rhezuss]

Cool thanks!

 

[gorcorps]

Ever since I built my system steam has always been on a separate drive, so yes it's fine. Very easy if you're starting from scratch too (just pick the drive you want to install to), less so if you already have a system going that you just want to migrate but still not hard.

 

[Worthington]

The Steam beta client lets you install games on a different drive than your application install, without the need for 3rd party apps or manual junction points. just fyi

 

[rivethead]

I've had a similar set up for two years now:

40GB SSD for a boot drive: C
750GB HD for Steam and other stuff: D

The only issues that I have run into are that some games automatically save your save game files in a subfolder of your My Documents folder (which by default is placed where Windows is installed, so in my case C drive).

Normally that's not a big deal as these files aren't big. But the exception was The Witcher. The Witcher auto saves a lot. And the files are huge. I started running out of disk space in a hurry when playing The Witcher and had to manually delete a lot of save files each night. Granted, a 40GB SSD isn't a very big boot drive to begin with. But two years ago when I got the 40GB SSD, that was all I could afford!

 

[darkewaffle]

I just move games via junctions, which works fairly well but still isn't a great solution for a lot of source/Valve games since the bulk of the space they take up seems to exist as files and not folders inside the Steamapps folder iirc, and I don't want -all- my games on the alternate drive, just almost all of them so junctioning the Steamapps folder itself is not really what I want to do. And I'd rather not futz with a double junction to even find out of it works lol.

It works well enough provided you have a fair sized boot drive, but TF2 alone takes up an immense amount of space and if you have many other Valve games it's kind of annoying.

Ironically Origin has let you designate game install locations for quite some time already lol.

 

[KidNiki1]

The Steam beta client lets you install games on a different drive than your application install, without the need for 3rd party apps or manual junction points. just fyi

this.

I use the beta client and i have steam itself on my e drive, and my games are split on both my e and c drive. works fine, no third party anything.

 

[lupi]

I've got it on D on one computer and E on another.

 

[Danwar]

Just remember that if you install it directly to D : , or E: or any other drive do not install it directly to the root of the drive (ie. D : \steam ) as it will cause you many many problems and steam will not run.

The proper way to do it is to make a 'games' folder in the desired drive and install steam in there ( ie. D : \Games\Steam ).

 

[JujuFish]

Just remember that if you install it directly to D : , or E: or any other drive do not install it directly to the root of the drive (ie. D : \steam ) as it will cause you many many problems and steam will not run.

The proper way to do it is to make a 'games' folder in the desired drive and install steam in there ( ie. D : \Games\Steam ).

My Steam has been installed under the root directory for years, and I've never had a problem.

 

[KidNiki1]

My Steam has been installed under the root directory for years, and I've never had a problem.

same

 

[PowerYoga]

i use symlinks for steam games that take a long time to load like total war. Most others I keep on the root with 0 issues whatsoever (like deus ex: loads so fast regardless of what you do)

 

[Danwar]

My Steam has been installed under the root directory for years, and I've never had a problem.

I remember it used to give me all sorts of problems when installing directly to root years ago, so i've been installing it on a subfolder for years now (i even remember reading threads on the steam forums about it)

i guess they fixed whatever was wrong by now then

 

[DaveSimmons]

I remember it used to give me all sorts of problems when installing directly to root years ago, so i've been installing it on a subfolder for years now (i even remember reading threads on the steam forums about it)

i guess they fixed whatever was wrong by now then

Yep, I've always used D : > Steam on my last 3 gaming PCs and never had a problem.

C: > Program Files is where you'll run into problems with Windows security for older games on Vista, 7 and 8 because of User Access Control.

 

[Xonim]

Just disable UAC, I've never had problems installing/playing games with Steam installed to C > Program Files\Steam.

That being said, I dropped a 2TB WD Black in my rig 6-8 months ago and had steam installed directly to that (previously on the SSD, 2-3 games at a time) -- there was definitely a little delay when launching the steam app. When I just swapped my SATA2 SSD for a SATA3 one, I went with the beta client installed on the SSD, Steam Apps folder in G > Steam\SteamApps. Just copied it from the previous install, had to click "install" on each game the first time, but it detects the files and just does what it does without downloading them again. Now Steam launches faster since it's on a SSD, and the games are off wherever. Plus if I know I'm playing X game every day, I can install to C (SSD) and leave everything else on the WD Black.

TLDR: Use the Steam beta client. Install games to wherever you want.

 

[Rhezuss]

Thanks all, I thought Steam wouldn't let you choose but glad you can. Will be easier for my next format. D it is!

 

[I4AT]

So with the Steam Beta do you get to choose which games install to what drive, or do you just have the option of putting client on a separate drive from games? I picked up a 180gb Intel SSD for a family member's machine, I was hoping to put a select few games that he plays often on the SSD and everything else on the mechanical drive.

 

[Worthington]

everytime you install a new game, you get to decide what drive to put it on.

 

[Phynaz]

The Steam beta client lets you install games on a different drive than your application install, without the need for 3rd party apps or manual junction points. just fyi

I never knew this, I just looked and it has all my drives listed!

 

[acheron]

I'll check out that beta client. Easier than making symlinks all the time. Nice that it's finally going to be an option.

 

[PowerK]

I've never had any problem with installing Steam under root directory (eg. D : \Steam, E : \Steam etc)

 

[_Rick_]

I've just mounted my second SSD (first one was filling up) into the program files/steam location, and copied everything that was there into the root of the FS on the new disk.
Zero problems, except steam often has trouble determining the correct amount of free space on the drive.

 

[Charles Weyland]

The Steam beta client lets you install games on a different drive than your application install, without the need for 3rd party apps or manual junction points. just fyi

Thanks for the reminder about Steam beta. Since adding an SSD as my primary drive I have been looking for a proper solution for splitting game installs onto secondary drives.

 

[Dratickon]

I've just mounted my second SSD (first one was filling up) into the program files/steam location, and copied everything that was there into the root of the FS on the new disk.
Zero problems, except steam often has trouble determining the correct amount of free space on the drive.

I did exactly the same thing a few days ago without any issue. I was quite happy with how painless it was and I'm sure my primary SSD is much happier now that it has some breathing room.