# Steamapps on multiple partitions - the easy way!



## Thrackan (May 4, 2011)

So, yesterday I was fed up with my SSD being filled to the brink and I went searching. I found this page about symbolic links that looked just too easy to be true, but I gave it a go anyway, and it works! 

My goal was to move non-frequently used games to another HDD, while keeping frequently used games on my SSD for fast loading times.

Basically, this is my way of moving Steam games as done under *[Windows 7]*:

- Go to your steamapps/common folder and cut the game folder(s) you would like to move.
- Paste the folder(s) where you would like to have them. (ie: E:\games\)
- Make a symbolic link as follows: Click here for more info

Run cmd.exe as Administrator. Click here to see how.
On the command prompt, type:

```
MKLINK /D "C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\common\<foldername>" "E:\games\<foldername>"
```

Where <foldername> is the name of the folder you moved.
You should adjust the source and target directories to those used on your system.
The "/D" parameter is used to make a directory link, instead of the default file link.
Use double quotes around the directory names. This eliminates any problems with spaces and such.

Then launch your Steam game as normal!

*Possible problems:*
Haven't tried, but you may run into problems installing new games, when Steam calculates the required space and your disk is so full the game won't fit on it.

Also, I haven't moved the .ncf files in the "steamapps" folder. You should be able to do that too, and make a symbolic *file* link without using the "/D" parameter. Feedback is welcome!

Last, I still want to try the following to try if we can install a game almost directly to the alternate partition:
- Start Steam and select "Install game" for a game, then immediately pause the download.
- Move the folder and make the link like described above.
- Resume download
Again, feedback is welcome!

According to Microsoft Technet, the MKLINK command also works on Windows Vista and Server 2008. I have not tried this, so once again, feedback is welcome!

*Tested this and it's working under win 7* (and even simpler!):


Dacur said:


> Im using this little nice app: http://www.traynier.com/software/steammover, for moving games to/from drives, does what ur doing just the really easy way.


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## W1zzard (May 4, 2011)

any opinions on ntfs junctions vs this ?


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## Thrackan (May 4, 2011)

W1zzard said:


> any opinions on ntfs junctions vs this ?



I don't know the technical differences, so anyone who can shed a light there is highly welcomed to do so


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## gumpty (May 4, 2011)

How very interesting.

Subbing on this topic to learn something new today.


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## Bundy (May 4, 2011)

I'm not sue why you are doing this? Is it because you only wish to move away some of the steam games but leave the rest on your OS drive? If you want to move all of them, why not install steam on the alternate drive?

I like the approach if it's just for temporary movement/archiving of non used games.


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## Thrackan (May 4, 2011)

Bundy said:


> I'm not sue why you are doing this? *Is it because you only wish to move away some of the steam games but leave the rest on your OS drive?* If you want to move all of them, why not install steam on the alternate drive?
> 
> I like the approach if it's just for temporary movement/archiving of non used games.



Exactly that.

I want to have the games I play alot on my SSD for fast loading, and other games on another harddisk.

You could archive those other games, but that would mean reinstalling those games when you want to use them. This way, I simply moved 40-50GB worth of games from my SSD to my HDD, and I could still play them, while Portal 2 for instance is still on the SSD because it rocks


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## Bundy (May 4, 2011)

Thrackan said:


> Exactly that.
> 
> I want to have the games I play alot on my SSD for fast loading, and other games on another harddisk.
> 
> You could archive those other games, but that would mean reinstalling those games when you want to use them. This way, I simply moved 40-50GB worth of games from my SSD to my HDD, and I could still play them, while Portal 2 for instance is still on the SSD because it rocks



Thanks!


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## qubit (May 4, 2011)

That's a great tip for moving the Steam folder, thrackan. 

Another way to do this, is to copy the Steam folder to the other drive as described below. This has the advantage that the complete Steam folder remains in one place, without the potential for broken links if something happens to either drive. It's also dead easy to make a backup of your Steam installation to another drive using a simple copy operation. This is really important if you have a large Steam installation. Mine is about 270GB and I don't ever fancy redownloading that lot again! 

- Make sure Steam is not running
- Copy (don't cut) the Steam folder to the new drive and rename it (just add a random character to the name, it doesn't matter)
- Uninstall Steam from Programs and Features (or Add/Remove for those still on XP)
- Download the installer from www.steampowered.com and install Steam to your preferred drive. _Be sure to give the destination folder the exact same name and location as the original one before you renamed it_
- When installation is complete and you have logged in, quit Steam
- Delete the newly created Steam folder, but make sure it goes in the Recycle Bin, in case you need to restore it if something goes wrong. Alternatively, just move it to another folder
- Rename the original Steam folder back to its original name
- Delete clientregistry.blob within it
- Run Steam - that's it!

Having deleted clientregistry.blob forces Steam to update and reinitialise itself and register the software installed, properly into the Library. Crucially, it also makes all the correct Windows registry entries, to prevent odd problems down the line.

And there you have it, the optimum way to move Steam!

EDIT: Just seen after I posted, that you want some games on the fast SSD and others on a regular drive. I can see why, but just make sure you have a backup of everything. That's especially true if you have a huge Steam install like mine.


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## Thrackan (May 4, 2011)

qubit said:


> That's a great tip for moving the Steam folder, thrackan.
> 
> Another way to do this, is to copy the Steam folder to the other drive as described below. This has the advantage that the complete Steam folder remains in one place, without the potential for broken links if something happens to either drive. It's also dead easy to make a backup of your Steam installation to another drive using a simple copy operation. This is really important if you have a large Steam installation. Mine is about 270GB and I don't ever fancy redownloading that lot again!
> 
> ...



Nice one  Steam also has a built-in option to archive your installed game data, which works great if, for example, you want to format the disk you have Steam on  It's my preferred method when reinstalling Windows.

But yeah, this is explicitly to use more than one partition/disk for your Steamapps. I've been pondering on this problem before, and I didn't think the solution would be this easy really


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## qubit (May 4, 2011)

Thrackan said:


> Nice one  *Steam also has a built-in option to archive your installed game data, which works great if, for example, you want to format the disk you have Steam on  It's my preferred method when reinstalling Windows.*
> 
> But yeah, this is explicitly to use more than one partition/disk for your Steamapps. I've been pondering on this problem before, and I didn't think the solution would be this easy really



Oh yeah, that's a very handy function, say you want to install Steam on another PC and perhaps only have one or two games installed on it. However, doing this for all your games, would duplicate* the amount of space they take and take ages to do.

The way I described, saves all that copying and just makes the new Steam install use the data as it is.

*Making a regular backup, of course duplicates that data anyway.  But it is somewhat quicker, as it doesn't compress it down to an archive.

BTW I use the free Karen's Replicator to backup my data. I very simply have a partition on a drive other than my system drive with all my data on it. I simply installed Steam into this partition and do a mirror copy of every file in that partition using KR to another partition on yet another drive, every night. Yes, I have three drives in my PC: system, data and it's backup. 

Get KR here if you'd like to use it: www.karenware.com/powertools/ptreplicator.asp


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## Dacur (May 4, 2011)

Im using this little nice app: http://www.traynier.com/software/steammover, for moving games to/from drives, does what ur doing just the really easy way.


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## Thrackan (May 4, 2011)

Dacur said:


> Im using this little nice app: http://www.traynier.com/software/steammover, for moving games to/from drives, does what ur doing just the really easy way.



That, my friend, is the porn I was after.


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## razaron (May 4, 2011)

I've been using symbolic links for a few months. They make my SSD happy.
You should also move your downloads folder to another drive (if you use it alot). I've also got the "My x" folders on my storage drive.


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## Thrackan (May 4, 2011)

W1zzard said:


> any opinions on ntfs junctions vs this ?





Dacur said:


> Im using this little nice app: http://www.traynier.com/software/steammover, for moving games to/from drives, does what ur doing just the really easy way.



This app uses the "/J" parameter and thus makes junctions. Don't get why it's 2,5 MB though, so I might try and make a simpler and smaller version.


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## gumpty (May 4, 2011)

Thrackan said:


> This app uses the "/J" parameter and thus makes junctions.



Can someone please describe the difference between junctions and symbolic links for me.


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## qubit (May 4, 2011)

gumpty said:


> Can someone please describe the difference between junctions and symbolic links for me.



http://lmgtfy.com/?q=difference+between+junctions+and+symbolic+links


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## gumpty (May 4, 2011)

qubit said:


> http://lmgtfy.com/?q=difference+between+junctions+and+symbolic+links



Classic. Thanks.


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## Thrackan (May 4, 2011)

So according to this page, the difference is as follows:



> A short cut is basically a file that points to another file. It is an antiquated, pointing system from the Windows 95 era. Shortcuts not only use up space on your hard drive, they linger around after the item they are pointing to has been deleted and may break if the destination is renamed or moved.
> 
> A symbolic link is like a short cut but instead of being saved as a file, they are registered to the file system. This means they do not use hard disk space but programs recognise and can read where the link is pointing to. A symbolic link can point to any file or folder either locally on the computer and over a network using a SMB path.
> 
> ...



So by using "/J" you are making a directory hard link, which is treated as a "real" folder and not as a link. This might be the safer option here.

The only thing I wonder is what happens in the following scenario:

- Create a /J directory hard link from dir A to B
- Delete dir A (the original dir)

According to the "hard link" functionality described in above quote, dir B should then retain a cloned copy of dir A?


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## qubit (May 4, 2011)

gumpty said:


> Classic. Thanks.



Yeah, couldn't resist.  There's also this funnier and much less politically correct version, but be prepared for flames! Probably best not used on TPU...

www.justfuckinggoogleit.com


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## Solaris17 (May 4, 2011)

/sub


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## silkstone (May 4, 2011)

Hmm. This is interesting. I don't have many steam games, but i do have many bloated folders like my documents, pictures, and some non-steam games. If i were to copy these to a backup drive then make a symbolic link, i would still be able to view the files through windows explorer as if they were on the os (c) drive? would all the names work as normal? If i wanted to undo the changes, whould i have to go through any special steps, or could i just copy the files back?

Thx


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## 2DividedbyZero (May 4, 2011)

silkstone said:


> Hmm. This is interesting. I don't have many steam games, but i do have many bloated folders like my documents, pictures, and some non-steam games. If i were to copy these to a backup drive then make a symbolic link, i would still be able to view the files through windows explorer as if they were on the os (c) drive? would all the names work as normal? If i wanted to undo the changes, whould i have to go through any special steps, or could i just copy the files back?
> 
> Thx



built into windows


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## silkstone (May 4, 2011)

qubit said:


> Get KR here if you'd like to use it: www.karenware.com/powertools/ptreplicator.asp



Synctoy is what i use for backups. It's quite a nice utility, written by microsoft.



2DividedbyZero said:


> built into windows
> 
> http://img.techpowerup.org/110504/Capture.jpg



Nice. Thank you, i never noticed that. I assume it should work for games too? so i can copy over all the games i installed in "program Files" without thinking?


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## 2DividedbyZero (May 4, 2011)

no. this only works for core windows libraries (pics, docs, music, videos etc etc)

use the app mentioned earlier for all other stuff/folders


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## digibucc (May 4, 2011)

silkstone said:


> Synctoy is what i use for backups. It's quite a nice utility, written by microsoft.
> 
> 
> 
> Nice. Thank you, i never noticed that. I assume it should work for games too? so i can copy over all the games i installed in "program Files" without thinking?



mklink will work for that though

another thing i do with it SUPER USEFUL:
make symbolic links for all your video game save folders, on a separate / networked drive.  for me this allows me to pick up a game on any of my pcs and have it load from where i left off on another.  they all share the same saved game folder.

it also makes it so your saved games are always saved if your system drive crashes.  obviously you may want to run a backup etc, but for me more often than not windows fails, and i hate searching the drive for save games.

ok, i read this on the steammover page:


> To those that have asked, I have tried using mklink to create hardlinks, but they do not work to link to another drive



but using mklink /d , i create links to other drives, and networked drives, no problem. so???


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## Thrackan (May 4, 2011)

Definitely something I'm gonna do as well. I hate backing up and restoring savegames.


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## A Cheese Danish (May 4, 2011)

Thanks for this. I only have <80GB free on my 120 and was hoping to do this somehow.
Thank you for giving me a project for next week when I'm done with school


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## digibucc (May 4, 2011)

Thrackan said:


> Definitely something I'm gonna do as well. I hate backing up and restoring savegames.



and losing them ;(

i can't say how many games i never finished because i lost a save and didn't want to redo... i also have to finish it on my own if i do, so downloading other's saves is not a solution


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## yogurt_21 (May 4, 2011)

3 1tb drives in raid 0, while random read/writes and low k read/writes are nowhere near the speed of an ssd, the games still load plenty fast, I can have all my games installed at once, and I never have to worry about archiving. (though i do have an automated backup that runs nightly and saves to my external)


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## digibucc (May 4, 2011)

yogurt_21 said:


> 3 1tb drives in raid 0, while random read/writes and low k read/writes are nowhere near the speed of an ssd, the games still load plenty fast, I can have all my games installed at once, and I never have to worry about archiving. (though i do have an automated backup that runs nightly and saves to my external)



lol yeah, but you have to raid 3 1tb drives! 

most people, even those that know how like myself, would not do that for games.  
rarely any games are ever limited by the hdd read/write speed, it just seems 
nowhere near worth it.

but hey, i have way to many screens and buy more hard-drives than i need as 
well.... that's where the fun is


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## Thrackan (May 4, 2011)

I like my SSD for it's accesstimes, read/write speeds are not immensely important to me.

Back on topic, I just tried the SteamMover program at home and it's made me damn lazy and satisfied so I'm not gonna bother writing anything new


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## digibucc (May 4, 2011)

Thrackan said:


> ...it's made me damn lazy and satisfied so I'm not gonna bother writing anything new



lol, yeah i do like that app for sure


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## Thrackan (May 4, 2011)

digibucc said:


> lol, yeah i do like that app for sure



Actually, I've just edited the .exe and changed the xcopy /F parameter to /Q which basically makes it non-verbose and faster.

Also, being a coder myself, I contacted the author to ask if he's okay with me attaching a modified version here. We'll see.


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## traynier (May 5, 2011)

Hey all.  Thanks for the kind words about my little steam mover app - I can see from the download count that its got quite a few users now, but didn't realise how much people like it!  

Thrackan - I've rather you didn't fork an edited .exe, so I'll put your parameter change as an option and release a new version.  Not sure when, as I'm a bit busy at the moment but I'll let you know when its up.

Cheers,
Paul.


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## HammerON (May 5, 2011)

Thanks for the app traynier!!!


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## alexsubri (May 6, 2011)

So this will work on Raid 0? I have my Steam games on my 640 GB (Raid 0) and I have a 1TB single HDD, I have over 40 games and would want to move some over to my 2nd HDD. Anybody can confirm this?


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## digibucc (May 6, 2011)

alexsubri said:


> So this will work on Raid 0? I have my Steam games on my 640 GB (Raid 0) and I have a 1TB single HDD, I have over 40 games and would want to move some over to my 2nd HDD. Anybody can confirm this?



yeah that's, kinda the point 

either the app or mklink /d will work, but the app will be easier


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## theJesus (May 6, 2011)

A Cheese Danish said:


> Thanks for this. I only have <80GB free on my 120 and was hoping to do this somehow.
> Thank you for giving me a project for next week when I'm done with school


Hah, I was just thinking as I read this "Hey, I should probably tell <REDACTED> about this."


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## GC_PaNzerFIN (May 6, 2011)

I have Steam installed on two drives. Some games on SSD and the rest on HDD. Then make shortcut to each steam.exe on your desktop. Easy 

e: You can also backup and move the games where you want by just copying the Steam folder. Easy! Just remember to never install Steam into your backup folder, you need to install Steam first and then copy the files.


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## Wrigleyvillain (May 6, 2011)

Yeah Ive had Steam on D: for awhile now, when I need to reinstall it I use a similar method as posted above but usually just keep and replace the steamapps folder instead of entire Steam folder itself and havent run into any probs. Think I'll try this Steam Mover if and when I want to move a game or two to my C: SSD for quicker loads.


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## Millennium (May 6, 2011)

I have an opposite (ish) problem. My steam install is on a 2TB hard drive which takes a while obviously for games to load. I want to move some of my games to an SSD (25gb free only) presumably the great looking Steam Mover app will work for that. 

But the main game I want to move is TF2 which is a couple of gcf files in Steam\steamapps . It's not a directory so after reading all the above since they are different partitions this can't be done? Is that right?

If so that's a shame


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## de.das.dude (Apr 30, 2012)

sub


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## Zebeon (Apr 30, 2012)

sub


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## theJesus (Apr 30, 2012)

sub

wait, nvm, I'm already sub'd


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## ERazer (Apr 30, 2012)

/sub

been looking for this


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## xBruce88x (May 1, 2012)

2DividedbyZero said:


> built into windows
> 
> http://img.techpowerup.org/110504/Capture.jpg



one of the most useful features. i've done this will all my "Libraries" in win7. comes in handy when its time to reformat... just redirect to the unharmed folders that still contain my stuff after the format haha


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## TheoneandonlyMrK (Sep 13, 2012)

*A way to choose steam install locations via Steam*

http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/201...-built-way-to-choose-steam-install-locations/

good read ,untested by me ill update that when ive tried it, but looks like its relatively easy to sort out via the new steam beta


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## Millennium (Sep 13, 2012)

theoneandonlymrk said:


> http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/201...-built-way-to-choose-steam-install-locations/
> 
> good read ,untested by me ill update that when ive tried it, but looks like its relatively easy to sort out via the new steam beta



Worked for me. Remember to sign up for Steam Beta.

Only thing is you can't do this for already installed games. I hope they add a move feature in the future.


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## digibucc (Sep 13, 2012)

nice find i wanted to bitch about rezzing the thread but this was worth it


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