Fresh os install on ssd but maintain access to games installed on old hdd - possible?

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dirkthedaring

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Jan 27, 2014
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Hi, After many years spectating on Tom's I have jumped in - I am an older dude so be nice.

I have a self built rig running a SATA II HDD which has everything on it -w7 Home Premium OEM, MS Office, Steam Games, other games, Movies, Music etc you get the point. 1 HDD with everything.

So I just ordered a 240GB SSD, and was hoping to put my w7 install on it and boot from it, but maintain access to all my programs and (especially) games from my old HDD without having to chew up all my download quota every month for the next 4 months to reinstall all my steam games.

Is this possible?
 
Solution
ThatVietGuy
It's far easier to just do the second thing you've written. Install Steam on the SSD, tell it to save to the old HDD, and move over the games after you've done the first two steps.

Just because Steam is installed on the old drive doesn't mean you'll be able to run it from a new OS. Doing it the way I've written will hopefully save some headache.
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dirkthedaring

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Jan 27, 2014
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OK, I read that, thanks. It appears to me that this will mean that new games get installed to the SSD? Is that right? I would really like to maintain the HDD as my storage drive for games etc, so my SSD can be as clean and lean as possible (i.e. just have the OS installed and perhaps a few programs such as MS Office).
 
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dirkthedaring

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Jan 27, 2014
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Forgive my naivety, but is it possible just to leave the Steam installation and games on the old HDD (previous C drive) and then just disconnect the HDD, connect the SSD, install w7 and all my drivers etc onto the new SSD, then reconnect the old HDD and just run Steam from the 2nd drive from then on? Or does Steam have to be installed into the new OS? (even if i tell it to install onto the old HDD)?

Failing this, do you suggest that I move my Steam installation onto the new SSD, tell it to save games to the 2nd drive, and leave my old Games installed on the old HDD (where I could now run them from?)

Apologies if this doesn't quite make sense.
 
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ThatVietGuy

ThatVietGuy

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Nov 6, 2007
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It's far easier to just do the second thing you've written. Install Steam on the SSD, tell it to save to the old HDD, and move over the games after you've done the first two steps.

Just because Steam is installed on the old drive doesn't mean you'll be able to run it from a new OS. Doing it the way I've written will hopefully save some headache.
 
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dirkthedaring

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Jan 27, 2014
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10,510


OK cool. Thanks VietGuy
 
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dirkthedaring

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Jan 27, 2014
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Thanks Yogi

I think I am good to go. I am not gonna bother with game saves, just don't want to have to download everything again. So gonna add SSD, install w7 fresh and install Steam onto SSD, then power down, add old HDD back into the system, reboot Steam, change game save location to E: and then hopefully Steam will recognise my old games folder and all good?
 
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Y0GI

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Jul 22, 2013
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Sounds like a good plan. Please let us know how you make out.

Yogi

 
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dirkthedaring

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Jan 27, 2014
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OK folks, the deed is done. I installed the new SSD, disconnected existing hdd, and fresh installed w7. I then reconnected HDD and navigated to the old Steam folders, and could actually run the application file and steam booted up, I could view my library etc. However, when I tried to play the games, the pc spat the dummy. Soooo, I tried to install Steam onto the old HDD again, but it failed. So installed steam onto the new SSD, then went into Steam settings and told it that games were saved on E:Steam, and voila, Steam available to play.

The only pita factor now is every time I download a game from Steam, I have to tell it manually that I want it to go to the E: Steam folder, or else it saves on c: (SSD) which I don't necessarily want.

Not a bad result though. As an aside I've also noticed that several applications will allow me to boot from a desktop shortcut, even though they are in program files from my old windows install, however some, such as MS Office, will not.

Thanks for all the help Tom's disciples.
 
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