Steam Mover

[ClayMeow]

I started using Steam Mover a little while ago and think others may be interested.

 

My main drive is RAID-0 dual 36.7GB raptor (the originals), so that only gives me around 74GB. Though I have over 2TB in storage space, I have Steam installed on my dual-raptors because I love the fast load times that striping provides. As you can imagine, however, it means I can't have too many Steam games installed at once. This generally isn't a problem for me because I have a super fast connection, and if I was really concerned, I could store backups on my secondary drives.

 

However, let's say you want all your game available for play, but would like the ones you play most to be on your shiny new, super fast SSD - what do you do? Steam doesn't allow games to be installed in multiple places. That's where Steam Mover comes into play. Steam Mover is a simple little program that lists all your installed Steam games. You can then choose to move a game to a secondary drive, and Steam Mover will create junction points so that the game is still fully playable, and even launch-able, through Steam.

 

Here's a screenshot of my current configuration:

 

As you can see, I moved Dead Space to a "Steam Games" folder I created on one of my secondary drives. The speed in which Steam Mover makes the changes depends on the size of the game and the transfer rates of your drives, as it's literally moving files over.

 

Here is the official site, which does a better, more in-depth, job at explaining things:

http://www.traynier....ware/steammover

 

 

The only caveat is that I believe Xfire and Raptr don't track games that have junction points because now the exe is technically located elsewhere. I'll need to run some further tests to be sure, but if that's the case, the workaround may be to manually load the game and point to the new exe file (at least that should work in xfire, not sure about raptr).

[CheeseMan42]

I started using Steam Mover a little while ago and think others may be interested.

 

My main drive is RAID-0 dual 36.7GB raptor (the originals), so that only gives me around 74GB. Though I have over 2TB in storage space, I have Steam installed on my dual-raptors because I love the fast load times that striping provides. As you can imagine, however, it means I can't have too many Steam games installed at once. This generally isn't a problem for me because I have a super fast connection, and if I was really concerned, I could store backups on my secondary drives.

 

However, let's say you want all your game available for play, but would like the ones you play most to be on your shiny new, super fast SSD - what do you do? Steam doesn't allow games to be installed in multiple places. That's where Steam Mover comes into play. Steam Mover is a simple little program that lists all your installed Steam games. You can then choose to move a game to a secondary drive, and Steam Mover will create junction points so that the game is still fully playable, and even launch-able, through Steam.

 

Here's a screenshot of my current configuration:

 

As you can see, I moved Dead Space to a "Steam Games" folder I created on one of my secondary drives. The speed in which Steam Mover makes the changes depends on the size of the game and the transfer rates of your drives, as it's literally moving files over.

 

Here is the official site, which does a better, more in-depth, job at explaining things:

http://www.traynier....ware/steammover

 

 

The only caveat is that I believe Xfire and Raptr don't track games that have junction points because now the exe is technically located elsewhere. I'll need to run some further tests to be sure, but if that's the case, the workaround may be to manually load the game and point to the new exe file (at least that should work in xfire, not sure about raptr).

 

You can do the same thing from a command prompt. That is what I did. Xfire recognizes games that aren't in the exact folder, I have done so and can confirm it works.

[ClayMeow]

You can do the same thing from a command prompt. That is what I did. Xfire recognizes games that aren't in the exact folder, I have done so and can confirm it works.

 

Okay, so maybe it was Raptr that wasn't detecting.

 

As for the command prompt, yes you can do so (and Steam Mover will even states so), however, this provides a convenient GUI, not to mention the ability to easily see what junction points you have set up.

[Bubbaxm2]

Very good stuff! Thanks.

[dr_bowtie]

Yep I read that and tried it....

 

I eneded up just moving the whole Programfiles x86 folder over to the storage drive...its still blazing fast load times even though its moved.

 

Its also alot easier that way for reformats..I just re-install windows then steam then change the Directory patch to the storage drive and walla all my games intact....

 

But yes this is a very handy little program

[CheeseMan42]

I know it is more convenient, just pointing out an alternative. May take a look at it when I get home.

[broooooooce]

ClayMeow: I, too, have 2 first gen 36GB Raptors in RAID 0 still running strong but they are the loudest things on the planet! I've had to suspend em on elastic to make the noise bearable! Have yours gotten loud over time?

[ClayMeow]

ClayMeow: I, too, have 2 first gen 36GB Raptors in RAID 0 still running strong but they are the loudest things on the planet! I've had to suspend em on elastic to make the noise bearable! Have yours gotten loud over time?

I haven't noticed any increase in noise. I've always had rubber dampeners in the hard drive trays. All I hear are my fans and/or PSU (not sure what exactly). My case is pretty good at keeping in most of the sound.

[WhenKittensATK]

Nice find. I was going to use that symbolic folder linking thing through cmd, but I'm spoiled by GUI

[Speedway]

Very nice find! I have struggled with this issue ever since going with my SSD's. Will have to give this a try after I move everything over to the U2-UF0 I bought off ccokeman and reformat Thx!

[WhenKittensATK]

Steam finally added a feature however still beta.

 

http://www.pcgamer.com/2012/09/12/steam-finally-adds-choice-of-installation-drive/

[WhenKittensATK]

Steam beta client integrated the "where to install game" into the GUI: Steam beta client http://imageshack.us/a/img17/8809/capturezca.jpg