A bit of a messy one here.
I just built a new computer, and in preparation, I backed up a few of my larger, most played Steam games to avoid the lengthy downloads.
However, the in-built Steam backup tool didn't seem to work with all of my games. For those, I simply copied the game files out of the Steam folder.
Now, I've got Steam re-installed to my C: drive, which is an SSD. I'm planning to have my Steam library, however, on a separate HDD.
How can I make Steam recognise that I've already got the game files, without it needing to re-download them again? Keep in mind I can't just put them back into the /common/ folder on my C: drive as I want my library on my F: drive.
Thanks.
I always just make a symlink to an external SteamApps folder. Never caused any problems for me.
There is an option to manage different steam library locations in the downloads tab in the steam settings.
As far as getting steam to detect the files, if you put the game folder into the new library's common folder,
then install it in steam and select the new directory from the dropdown it should discover the files already there.
Hope that helps.
Thanks Darkwater but I'd prefer to just have this fixed through Steam.
Hi Oderic, I have already got my Steam Library with a 'common' folder on my desired HDD. I copied, for example, my Civ V folder there. I then attempted to install Civ V, with the correct HDD selected, but Steam just started downloading it from the start - it actually removed most of the files I copied over, too.
[editline]12th March 2014[/editline]
Oh, god, I just managed to get it working.
It seems, for some reason, I had to:
-Remove the backups I copied over
-BEGIN the download of the game from scratch
-Stop it
-Then copy over the backup files
-Run it
Then Steam took a moment to 'repair' the installation and it was good to go. Hm.
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