Moving Steam From One HDD To Another?

[Stg-Flame]

First off, I really have no idea where to put this thread, so I am hoping either someone will move it to the appropriate place, or someone here will know how to do this.

I installed Steam on my old XP PC when I built my first gaming rig back in 2005. Since then, I have only built one other PC recently back in August of last year. When I built the new PC, I tested games before I redownloaded Steam, but first, I took my old XP HDD out and installed it into my new PC so I could transfer all of my major files over without using a thumb drive. When I got around to downloading Steam, it automatically detected Steam from my old HDD and linked everything there. I have a Steam folder in my Program Files on my Vista HDD, but I have no files on it. Everything I add to Steam is added to my XP HDD.

So my question is this. How can I switch my entire Steam folder and all of my games/files contained within to my Vista HDD without causing anything to stop working? Alternatively, I need to keep Steam on my old XP HDD with the same information on it, so essentially, I either need to copy it to my Vista HDD, or move it to Vista and then somehow move that information back to my XP PC.

 

[Xcobra]

i think youll just have to dl everything...could be wrong...

 

[Stg-Flame]

I tried to disconnect my XP HDD and then load Steam, but I keep getting errors. I uninstalled and reinstalled it off my new PC and I continued to get errors. For some reason, my account is tied to that file path and I cannot seem to change it.

 

[Lonyo]

Install Steam to the new drive.
Copy the old Steam directory (from the old drive) to the new Steam directory (on the new drive) and overwrite anything it asks about.
Run Steam.

Always works for me.

 

[gorobei]

you can try this: (saves you from having to DL everything again, and you now have backups)

go to steam/games
right click on one of your games
select: backup game files
follow steps for backup either on dvd-r or external drive
uninstall steam from vista (may have to clean the registry)
remove xp drive
copy backup files to vista drive
activate executable to restore game files

 

[Runes911]

Originally posted by: gorobei
you can try this: (saves you from having to DL everything again, and you now have backups)

go to steam/games
right click on one of your games
select: backup game files
follow steps for backup either on dvd-r or external drive
uninstall steam from vista (may have to clean the registry)
remove xp drive
copy backup files to vista drive
activate executable to restore game files

^ Best way. That is how I have always transfered steam.

 

[Elganja]

Originally posted by: Lonyo
Install Steam to the new drive.
Copy the old Steam directory (from the old drive) to the new Steam directory (on the new drive) and overwrite anything it asks about.
Run Steam.

Always works for me.

i've done this before too... except in reverse. Copy your entire steam folder to the new hdd. then run the steam installer and install it in that directory. This has worked for me twice.

 

[PingSpike]

Originally posted by: Runes911

Originally posted by: gorobei
you can try this: (saves you from having to DL everything again, and you now have backups)

go to steam/games
right click on one of your games
select: backup game files
follow steps for backup either on dvd-r or external drive
uninstall steam from vista (may have to clean the registry)
remove xp drive
copy backup files to vista drive
activate executable to restore game files

^ Best way. That is how I have always transfered steam.

Last I heard this didn't save any of the updates? Am I incorrect on this?

 

[CoinOperatedBoy]

Originally posted by: Lonyo
Install Steam to the new drive.
Copy the old Steam directory (from the old drive) to the new Steam directory (on the new drive) and overwrite anything it asks about.
Run Steam.

Always works for me.

I just did this about two months ago. Never had any issues. Much easier than using their backup utility. Just have to make sure to copy any saved games and configuration files that may have been stored outside the Steam directory. I think Fallout 3, for example, likes to use My Documents\My Games.

 

[conorvansmack]

Originally posted by: Lonyo
Install Steam to the new drive.
Copy the old Steam directory (from the old drive) to the new Steam directory (on the new drive) and overwrite anything it asks about.
Run Steam.

Always works for me.

Is there any issue with this method when going from an XP installation to Vista?

 

[PuppettMaster001]

Originally posted by: conorvansmack

Originally posted by: Lonyo
Install Steam to the new drive.
Copy the old Steam directory (from the old drive) to the new Steam directory (on the new drive) and overwrite anything it asks about.
Run Steam.

Always works for me.

Is there any issue with this method when going from an XP installation to Vista?

Nope, it should be fine. Went from Xp to Vista then to Windows 7 RC1 using this method with no issues. The only difference is, I copy the whole Steam directory then reinstall Steam on the new OS into the copied Steam folder.

 

[Stg-Flame]

Thanks for all the replies. Seems it won't be as hard as it has seemed to be.

 

[AmberClad]

Originally posted by: CoinOperatedBoy
I just did this about two months ago. Never had any issues. Much easier than using their backup utility. Just have to make sure to copy any saved games and configuration files that may have been stored outside the Steam directory. I think Fallout 3, for example, likes to use My Documents\My Games.

You're going to have to go hunting around for save files. There is no standard that the devs adhere to, so you have saves ending up all over the place. Some of them will save to AppData, I think.

I'm really going to have to start remember to do this before I reformat. Downloading hundreds of gigs worth of games at 100kbps is not fun.

 

[CoinOperatedBoy]

Originally posted by: AmberClad

Originally posted by: CoinOperatedBoy
I just did this about two months ago. Never had any issues. Much easier than using their backup utility. Just have to make sure to copy any saved games and configuration files that may have been stored outside the Steam directory. I think Fallout 3, for example, likes to use My Documents\My Games.

You're going to have to go hunting around for save files. There is no standard that the devs adhere to, so you have saves ending up all over the place. Some of them will save to AppData, I think.

I think all Valve games store saved games and config files in the Steam folder, so you only need to go digging for third-party files (as with Bethesda's Fallout 3 as I mentioned previously).

 

[abaez]

You don't need to do anything. I've reinstalled three times that past few months.

I simply have a d:\games\steam folder on a separate drive. All I ever do on a new OS is click on steam.exe and everything runs perfectly. No reinstalls or redownloads needed (although saved games may/may not be there).