Moving SOME of my steam games to an SSD.

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games_maxed

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Just got an SSD and I have about 10-12 steam games on my hard drive. I have about 90 GBs free after installing Windows 7 on the SSD so I'd like to put some games and editing programs on there. However, the only game I have through steam that would really benefit from an SSD is Amnesia: The Dark Descent because it has some ridiculous level load times. The rest I'd like to keep on my HDD. How can I do this?.

I looked at the article that Steam themselves posted on this but they only tell you how to move the whole library. I only want to move one game.

Of course, I'm wanting to avoid downloading the games again. Mostly because I live in a rural area and although my download speeds aren't that shabby (8 Mbit/s) I get throttled pretty quickly down to about 200Kbit/s.
 
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This is a little late, but anyone else with the question.. this is all you have to do:

1. Go to Steam settings and add a game library for the other HDD or SSD you are moving games to. I made a D:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\SteamApps\common\ to mirror the steam install on C:

2. Copy the game folder in \common\ to the other drive, and then go back into \SteamApps\ and find the .acf for the game (looks like appmanifest_XXXXXX.acf) To find what acf is for your game, go to steam, go to your library, click "View store page" and when it loads the game's store page, right click and copy url... go into your browser and paste the link, the number at the end is the .ACF number. Now, move that .ACF into the /SteamApps/ folder on the other...
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Keemann

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I believe you would have to uninstall the game and reinstall it and select the SSD. I'm a steam noob so maybe someone else could answer you but this is the way I install my games onto a separate hard drive.
 
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USAFRet

USAFRet

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Create a new folder on the other drive. In the existing SteamApps folder, each game should have its own subfolder.

In the Steam client, you can designate multiple locations. Make one of those the new folder on the other drive. Copy the relevant subfolder over to that new folder, and see what happens.
 
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games_maxed

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The only folder in my HDD's SteamApps folder that has any games in it is "Common". So I Just Cause 2 from that common folder to the common folder in my SSD's Steam directory. Apparently I'm somehow missing random dll files and can't run some of the games. Even some of the games on my HDD are having this problem. My drive wasn't tampered with. How is this?
The most common file I'm missing is XINPUT1_3.dll. A couple games are missing this. Other files are missing in different games too. Am I just going to have to re-download these games?
 
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games_maxed

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Well judging by the fact that my original HDD can't find the dll files, I don't think I have them. Period. Not sure how this happened.
 
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games_maxed

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I know Steam allows you to copy them over. Doesn't seem to be working for me though. So unfortunately, I think I'll have to download them again.
 
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CraveMode

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This is a little late, but anyone else with the question.. this is all you have to do:

1. Go to Steam settings and add a game library for the other HDD or SSD you are moving games to. I made a D:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\SteamApps\common\ to mirror the steam install on C:

2. Copy the game folder in \common\ to the other drive, and then go back into \SteamApps\ and find the .acf for the game (looks like appmanifest_XXXXXX.acf) To find what acf is for your game, go to steam, go to your library, click "View store page" and when it loads the game's store page, right click and copy url... go into your browser and paste the link, the number at the end is the .ACF number. Now, move that .ACF into the /SteamApps/ folder on the other harddrive.

3. Once all files are copied over for your game folder and the .ACF for it, go into steam and right click your game > Delete Local Content. This will uninstall your game at the old location, aslong as you moved your files to the new drive, it shouldn't delete them.

4. Last, once it says to Install Game, click Install Game and choose the library location you added where the game now resides. It will "Discover" the files and not download anything.
 
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tsnor

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TY for posting. Will try this.
 
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MrJak

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I know this was already answered, but I want to provide what I feel is a much better solution: Steam Mover, a free program that will let you quickly switch a Steam game's install folder without reinstalling, or manually deleting files; I highly recommend it.
 
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ProvenHelper

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Sorry guys but the best way to accomplishing the move of one steam game to another hard drive is by doing a symbolic link.
A symbolic link lets you move a folder to another location while retaining a "link" in the original location that will instantly send requests to the new location. I actually just recorded a video about this because my 16GB GTAIV installation was eating up my SSD which is only 120 GB. I did some research and decided to try doing a symbolic link. The process was super simple and you don't have to install any special software.

[video="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XbNhCnW8l6Q&list=UUZvpsD4UrrK9buHsDzxqp7A"][/video]

Check out this video for the complete tutorial or just open up an elevated command prompt window and type in: mklink /?
 
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MrJak

MrJak

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Technically speaking, it's the most efficient, but it's not as quick or easy as simply moving the install.
One note about using Symbolic links, and I could be wrong, but I believe they will become a huge mess when it comes to installing and uninstalling games. Great for a few games you want permanently installed, but not great if you frequently have to manage your space. Edit: Sorry, thought you were making symbolic links to important data, like levels, and letting textures load on the hard drive -- I saw this done on WoW. Steam Mover automatically does what you are saying -- creating a symbolic link for the entire game folder.

Steam's built in function for this is not too difficult, but what I provided does the same thing a tad faster, and much easier -- requires no learning from the user, and is a simple click and move user interface.
It will take more space than symbolic links, more programs than Steam's built in features, but less time and effort than either, so in that regard, it is far better, so the user has to decide what is most important.

But I think, since the OP said it's only for Amnesia, either using Steam's built in feature, or Steam Mover is their best bet, since it's only for one game. If they have no issues with third party software, then using Steam Mover is by far, the quickest and easiest option, otherwise Steam's built in feature is almost as good.
 
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RoboPhantom

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I would make a new steamapps folder by going to Steam settings then downloads then clicking steam library folders and make a new folder on the drive you want the game to be on (if you haven't already).

Then copy the game folder you want to move by right clicking the game in library and selecting properties then go to local files and click browse local files.
Move that folder to the new folder location.
Delete the game from steam then reinstall it but you won't have to redownload the games as it will detect it already being there.
 
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Mattiuszep

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This seems to work well, thank you! :)

 
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barno0

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This solution worked great me, one thing to mention is you need to create the 'common' folder in the new location on the SSD.

 
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manman1

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Damn I should have tried that... There were a lot of people saying the solution of just replacing your steamapps folder with your other library, doing 'delete local content' and then reinstalling would work (it would say it was going to download, then see the files there and finish).

For me that just deleted all my game files in the NEW location and is now re-downloading them... Hooray, I get to wait for 90GB to download again :( I'm stupid I knew I should have backed it up, but replacing the folder made it seem so trivial!
 
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CP7212

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I have a standard hard drive and a SSD. I bought Civ5 and put it on the platter drive, as I thought it would run fast enough on it. It's okay, but you get spoiled by SSD speeds. I copied the game folder from \\SteamApps\Common on the platter drive to the same directory on the SSD. I went into Steam and right-clicked on the Civ5 game and told it to delete local content. Steam told me that it saw two Steam installs, which was correct. I chose the platter HD directory for it to delete from and it deleted it. The game on Steam was greyed out, I clicked install. It went through the motions of detecting existing Civ5 files in the SSD directory, allocated hard drive space, and it started downloading files as if it was a new install. I thought, eh, well the other directory that I copied is there, I'll just move it back. Nope, it's gone too, save for like, 8K of files. It deleted the local content from both of the drives even though I only specified one.

I just wanted to let you know not to trust Steam like that. Now I have to d/l almost 9 gigs on my crappy DSL, again. Just when I start to have confidence in Steam's workings, I'm let down yet again....
 
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CP7212

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Update: I went into the platter HD's directory to permanently delete the 8K of files, to clean up the directory. I clicked on Resume on the Steam download and the download timer went to two minutes. So, I just let it run. After the Play button lit up, I went to the directory on the SSD drive and all of the files were there. It must have turned the bits back on once the duplicate directory was removed. The game runs and it points to my saves. I wouldn't condone anyone doing it this way, but if you run into problems, give this a shot.
 
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Shooter_NZ

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THANK YOU - FOR A SIMPLE SOLUTION: :)

This is a VERY EASY solution as I only wanted one steam game (Arma 3) moved to my SSD and the rest of my steam games reside on another HDD. In addition to #3 - after deleting local content for Arma 3, I found that I had to delete the Arma 3 folder (old location) so that the previous folder I used for Arma 3 was not visible. Then when I selected Arma 3 to install, no message displays that the game exists and then "discovers" that the files are in that new location.

 
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willcoq

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I tried the solution originally posted by CraveMode that you quoted, and at the end of step 4, when I chose the new library location and clicked Install, it DELETED the copy I had made and re-downloaded the whole game from scratch. This was GTA V, and my directory was 64 GB. It does not send it to the recycle bin. Neither does "Delete Local Content." So I had no copy of it at all anymore. It was too late to try what you recommended about manually deleting the old location.

Fortunately, I'm one of the internet's 1%, and I have Google Fiber, so it downloaded again in a jiffy, but not everyone is so lucky!

 
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Neil_23

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the
 
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Neil_23

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A little easier - perhaps. Try adding a step between 1 and 2 above. Install some small uninstalled game (peggle for me) from your library into the new folder you've created. This then sets up the folders you need so you can copy the game folder you want to move straight into the new common folder.Did all the ACF stuff above and it worked perfectly. Alot better than downloading a whole 57gb of DOOM again!
 
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