SSD and restoring steam backup

[tviceman]

I'm set to install Windows and make my first SSD the primary boot drive. Before I do though, I want a clear plan of attack for restoring my steam backup. I want the steam client on the SSD drive, but of course I want the majority of my games on the storage drive. I'm eventually going to be using the steam mover app to set junction points and keep the games on the on the storage drive still playable - but my current predicament is that I don't know how I can best go about restoring my steam backup (which is 250+ gigs) when the steam client is going to be on the SSD drive.

Anyone got suggestions?

 

[sandorski]

Does Steam Mover just put the Steam Application onto a different Drive? If so, Copy/Paste the Steam directory is all you should need to do, to begin with.

Will doing this actually speed up the initialization of Steam?

 

[tviceman]

I think it speeds up steam. Also, Valve's games can't work with junction points so at the very least it will speed up loading those games.

 

[CNelsonPSU]

I think it speeds up steam. Also, Valve's games can't work with junction points so at the very least it will speed up loading those games.

Valves games don't use junction points (symbolic links to directories), but they work fine with plain old symbolic links. Just use the command line utility "mklink" in Vista or 7 - not sure about XP.

A tutorial with both scenarios (third-party games in their own directory, Valve games w/ their single file) that I found helpful is at http://www.jungsource.com/tutorials/44-gaming/51-steam-games-on-multiple-hard-drives.html

Edit: Also, FYI, I find it easier to have steam install to my HDD, then I just move and link whatever game (or select few games) I'm playing at the time to my SSD. This way I'm only linking for the minority of games, leaving less room for mistakes and/or whatever else can go wrong with symbolic links when I forget about them 😉

--Chuck

 

[boozie]

Edit: Also, FYI, I find it easier to have steam install to my HDD, then I just move and link whatever game (or select few games) I'm playing at the time to my SSD. This way I'm only linking for the minority of games, leaving less room for mistakes and/or whatever else can go wrong with symbolic links when I forget about them 😉

--Chuck

Are there any articles or anything about the benefits (or lack thereof) for having the client itself on the SSD? Seems like it is much more difficult to pull off since you have a lot more links and you probably can't get all the games on the SSD first to link them out so you'd have to piecemeal it.