Quick Questions About Steam??

[Justinbaileyman]

I am still pretty new to steam and have about 10-15 games now and before I go and buy any more, I was wondering what happens to those games if my harddrive decides to takes a dirt nap?Can I redownload those same games for free and what happens to all my saves?

 

[irishScott]

Yeah you can re-download the games as many times as you like. Steam also has a built in backup feature if you'd like to store local copies.

As for your saves, depends on the game. Some sync with Steam's cloud which can act as a backup, but most are stored locally and would be lost.

 

[Justinbaileyman]

Thanks for the quick answer.. That is a relief to know my hard earned money wont go down the tube if my harddrive die's. I guess the next question would be where are the saves stored from steam on my harddrive? I am using windows 10 preview if that helps. I will back up my saves on a flash drive then soon as I find out where they are stored.

 

[BlueWeasel]

Instead of trying to locate the individual save folders, use Gamesave Manager to select and backup.

 

[clok1966]

Thanks for the quick answer.. That is a relief to know my hard earned money wont go down the tube if my harddrive die's. I guess the next question would be where are the saves stored from steam on my harddrive? I am using windows 10 preview if that helps. I will back up my saves on a flash drive then soon as I find out where they are stored.

what if Steam dies? before the Steam lovers or haters get up in arms, i have so damn many Steam games the SUMMER SALE is just a 'what you bought at full price" regret sale for me.

 

[JimKiler]

Instead of trying to locate the individual save folders, use Gamesave Manager to select and backup.

Where was this post the last 5 years??? I could have used it and not lost a bunch of saves i thought i had backed up in steam's cloud save.

 

[DaveSimmons]

what if Steam dies? before the Steam lovers or haters get up in arms, i have so damn many Steam games the SUMMER SALE is just a 'what you bought at full price" regret sale for me.

What if Microsoft stops selling Windows and remotely disables all existing copies?

Both are more likely than a meteor crashing into your home and vaporizing you when you just want to play some Defense Grid, but I'm not losing sleep over any of the three.

 

[geforce255]

Instead of trying to locate the individual save folders, use Gamesave Manager to select and backup.

Actually, I upgraded my primary SSD recently and reloaded a clean copy of Windows - keeping my existing storage drives. Steam located my exist game stores and restored what I had with no effort on my part.

I DID lose a lot of save games, since many of them save on the C: drive - but the games themselves were intact.

I was impressed.

 

[fralexandr]

most steam game saves are stored in their respective game folders in:
user\my documents\my games

some are stored in folders located in:
user\my documents
program files(x86)\steam\steamapps\common
program files(x86)\steam\steamapps\user

some (rpgmaker games?) are stored in:
user\[hidden]appdata\roaming

I relocated most of my user folders, including user\my documents, to the HDD, and steam is directed to install games to HDD so last time I reinstalled windows (SSD) I only lost my rpgmaker based game saves :S, silly rpgmaker... whose idea was that? Oddly enough, RPG Maker saves games/projects you actually make into the my documents folder... :S

 

[xantub]

On a tangent note, I love how Microsoft has tried to standardize where things go (like telling game devs to put user-created files like save games under 'my documents', etc) but then they change this standard on every new Windows version.

 

[lamedude]

Beware of games with extra DRM. Some of them have activation limits.

 

[AgentUnknown]

Welcome to 10 years ago. Steam is great. You will be uninstalling many games to make room to fit on your SSD.

 

[TeknoBug]

Welcome to 10 years ago. Steam is great. You will be uninstalling many games to make room to fit on your SSD.

Who would fill up their SSD with games? That's why an SSD for OS and HDD(s) for games/storage.

 

[PrincessFrosty]

Who would fill up their SSD with games? That's why an SSD for OS and HDD(s) for games/storage.

People who want fast loading times. I generally keep a few of my main games on my primary SSD and either delete them or cycle them to HDD backups when they've run their course.

 

[irishScott]

Who would fill up their SSD with games? That's why an SSD for OS and HDD(s) for games/storage.

I have a 1 TB SSD. What is this "fill up" you mention?

In any case, SSDs make a huge difference in loading times, which aside from convenience can make a difference in which weapon class you get in an online multiplayer FPS. Since I upgraded to the SSD I'm able to get virtually any weapon I want in Red Orchestra 2, the specialized classes are first-come-first-served.

In any case, thanks to 3D NAND SSDs are expected to reach price parity with hard drives next year.

 

[poofyhairguy]

Who would fill up their SSD with games?

I wish I had a TB SSD just for games and the OS, and Big Picture can't install games to a non-OS drive.

 

[xantub]

Who would fill up their SSD with games? That's why an SSD for OS and HDD(s) for games/storage.

I have both, I put games I know I will fire a lot (like Crusader Kings 2, Europa Universalis 4) in the SSD, and games I'm just checking out in the HDD.