One hard drive with OS, program files on another?

mckevstah

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May 27, 2013
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So Recently my hard drive or windows 8 failed. I may still be able to get some of my data off, and i have a lot of games installed.

Is there a way to copy over the game files and insert into the program files in my new hard drive? I don't fancy downloading 15 games at 20Gigs each.

Also, this hard drive is smaller than my other, so once i have "Fixed" the other one, i will use it for storage. Is it possible to have my OS on this hard drive but install programs and games on the other?
 

toddybody

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Youll need to create an image of your existing HDD, you cant just copy and paste the program files over. Since you think it can be "fixed", Im assuming that you have some corrupted install and not a mechanical failure...which may kibosh my previous suggestion. I know its a pain, but I'd grab what personal files I can...reformat the drive and test.

Just curious...are you using an SSD for your OS/Installs and this other drive for media files?
 

mckevstah

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Well i get MOST of my games from Steam, apart from Guild wars 2, and BF3. One of my friends said hes got the program files form someone else because he doesn't have the bandwidth to download games and he said it works fine.

Yeah I'm pretty sure it's not the actual hard drive, which is only a year old, i am pretty sure it's windows 8 thats corrupted. I got a power outage while it was "Checking and repairing" and since then it doesn't even try and boot the OS.

I'm back to windows 7 on this current 500gb HDD, and i want to stay on here. W8 is not my thing. To answer you other question, they are both HDD not SSD.
 

ryanrich83

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Jul 31, 2012
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That is how my setup is. SSD has the OS plus some program files. Second HDD is used for data files, as well as my Steam Library.

I recently had to reinstall Windows 8 to fix OS issues. All my data stayed intact, and I just relinked my Steam Library. Saved me from having to download 20+ games.

For all other downloaded games/programs, they are saved to a folder on the second HDD so that I have the .exe and files available to reinstall if needed.

Even if you only have 1 HDD, like in the case of a laptop, I usually recommend installing OS on one partition, and everything else to other partition(s) on the drive.
 

ryanrich83

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When I get off work, I can look at my Steam folders to see the folder structure.

You might be able to take the Steam library files from 'failed' drive and place in a different Steam library folder on serarate drive, and hopefully Steam can recognize the files.
 

Skippy27

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Nov 23, 2009
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Most games can be simply copied from one place to another without any issues. There are few, if any DLL's that get registered to a specific path that would cause the program to fail after being copied.

In all honesty it is going to be trail and error. The best thing you can do is put your "old drive" into your machine and after you have the OS and that installed on the "new drive" copy the games over. If they work, great. If not, then you may need to instal them again.