Moving to a different drive?

[Griphos]

Hey guys. I've bought a SSD and am going to clone my C:/ drive and OS to it. I have Steam installed on C:/ as well (at least many of my Steam games) including TS. It's gotten too big now, and I need to free up some room before cloning. How would I go about moving my Railworks folder to another drive? Can I copy everything over and then uninstall from C:/ and reinstall on the new drive and have Steam find all the files and folders? Is there a better way? I can't really download all 90 gb again on my very low bandwidth DSL.

[ssbobz]

I've used Steam Mover to migrate TS and other games from the default Steam location to another drive. It's an automation of DOS commands but also gives you the choice to run them manually to see what it's doing. Basically, it moves the existing files and redirects the paths to the new location so it's not the same as creating an alternate Steam install folder which afaik only works on new installations.

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

[OldProf]

I've also been planning to move Steam and TS to an SSD and that utility looks very interesting, but raises a question: will Steam recognize the change from one host drive to another? This is very important in regard to future DLC purchases, updates and cache verifications. In the author's example, a game is to be moved from C:\programfiles (x86) etc. to D:\Steam\, a change that looks like it would leave that one game "orphaned" on the D drive.

[ssbobz]

I don't recall having any trouble with dlc going to the correct new location or Steam verification of files. Steam mover keeps the game folder in the original location, moves the contents to the new location, and tells Steam where to find them. It's similar to (or the same as) the way windows handles multiple libraries for pictures and videos.

As far as I know, steam mover just makes a directory junction for you and copies the folder over. A directory junction is basically a hard link that points to a whole directory instead of just a file. If you used Steam mover to move skyrim from C to D then as far as your OS is concerned, skyrim is still on C but the files are actually on D.. or wherever you moved them to.

source http://www.gamefaqs.com/boards/916373-pc/66905913

More info here http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/27 ... ndows.html

[davedingler]

I use a program called "Beyond Compare" available at: http://www.scootersoftware.com/download.php .

Works good for me. You can compare files, folders and drives, side by side.

Dave

[Ericmopar]

I just copy the old steam folder to wherever I want it, then navigate to Steam.exe and run it. Steam will do a self repair. That repair just puts a small folder in C drive and tells the user account where to find the steam install. After that you can delete the old Steam install.
You may have to go to each game and send it's .exe to the desktop if you want a shortcut there, but all the shortcuts within Steam should work after it self repairs.

[buzz456]

I just copy the old steam folder to wherever I want it, then navigate to Steam.exe and run it. Steam will do a self repair. That repair just puts a small folder in C drive and tells the user account where to find the steam install. After that you can delete the old Steam install.
You may have to go to each game and send it's .exe to the desktop if you want a shortcut there, but all the shortcuts within Steam should work after it self repairs.

I agree that worked just fine for me. I only have one game but just moved it to the new drive and ran the exe and Steam was happy.

[Ericmopar]

I've also partitioned my HD and sent Steam and railworks backups and programs there, so I don't have to reinstall after a windows reinstall. Backed up shortcuts will work when copied over from the backup drive. Except Mike's RailUtilities folder. I can't just copy the shortcut over or run the exe to the new desktop for some reason.
My inventive mind just called the new partition (S:) and named it Steam. That way it shows up in Linux as well as windows. Linux can see a partition's name even though it can't identify a Windows partition letter.

[peterhayes]

The Official method: https://support.steampowered.com/kb_art ... -YUBN-8129
pH

[ssbobz]

The official method will move all of your games, I was under the impression you only wanted to move Railworks, that choice will probably determine which method will suit your needs.

[Griphos]

I do just want to move Railworks, at least for now. How about using the "Backup and Restore" feature built into Steam? I'm wondering if I can back up the game and "restore" it to a different drive.

[Ericmopar]

The official method will move all of your games, I was under the impression you only wanted to move Railworks, that choice will probably determine which method will suit your needs.

As opposed to what method doesn't move all your games.
Backup and restore and the "official" method are over complicated ways to do it. The more complicated things get, the more likely and error will occur.

[ssbobz]

The official method will move all of your games, I was under the impression you only wanted to move Railworks, that choice will probably determine which method will suit your needs.

As opposed to what method doesn't move all your games.
Backup and restore and the "official" method are over complicated ways to do it. The more complicated things get, the more likely and error will occur.

Steam Mover is a method that can move individual games if I'm reading your post correctly. It appears to me that backup/restore and the official method are pretty much the same thing, they move the entire Steam install to a new location by rebuilding everything except the steamapps folder and steam.exe.

[Griphos]

Yeah, it looks like backup and restore moves all of them.

I was thinking I could move one game. Uninstall it from the original drive, install it to the new drive and let it find the files already there. But I'll look into this Steammove program. Thanks.

[buzz456]

Not only that but the backup and restore will be using your slow internet to accomplish all that. Why don't you go back to what Eric and I said worked just fine? It's simple and tried and works.