# Looking to buy my first SSD, how do I install games on my HDD if I have Steam on SSD?



## Phusius (Jun 3, 2012)

I am getting the 6gb Crucial m4, going to download all my drivers/win 7, CCC, etc on it.  then I wanted to put steam and origin on it, but install my games for those programs on my HDD, how do I go about doing that?


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## Undead46 (Jun 3, 2012)

You can't.

AFAIK, Steam has to be installed in the same drive you're going to store your game files.


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## Jstn7477 (Jun 3, 2012)

There is a tool where you can move game files to different drives for Steam, but it doesn't work for every game. I personally install my Steam library (800GB) with the Steam client on my 2TB HDD. Games load plenty fast for me, and honestly, the SSD doesn't have much of an advantage in many games versus an HDD. If anything, having Windows and your games on separate disks seemed to help from what I noticed.

EDIT: Plus, 60GB can be quite cramped for much more than a Windows 7 install. When my drive was fairly clean, I used about half of it, and with my core programs, Office 2007, Tribes: Ascend,  StarCraft II and some downloads/files, my drive sits at 13.1GB free out of 111GB.


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## manofthem (Jun 4, 2012)

+1 to putting Steam directory on HDD like jstn said.

But if you're determined, maybe give this thread a browse
http://www.techpowerup.com/forums/s...how+to+install+steam+games+on+different+drive


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## erocker (Jun 4, 2012)

You're probably going to want larger than 60gb for your O/S drive. Especially if you want to put some other programs on it.


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## jgrahl (Jun 4, 2012)

I would just install steam on the drive with large enough capacity for steam and all games.  You won't lose any noticeable performance from it.


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## TheOne (Jun 4, 2012)

Phusius said:


> I am getting the 6gb Crucial m4, going to download all my drivers/win 7, CCC, etc on it.  then I wanted to put steam and origin on it, but install my games for those programs on my HDD, how do I go about doing that?



It would be best to install Steam on your HDD, as it has been pointed out that Steam will not let you change the install directory, and 60GB of space really isn't enough, especially with Windows and any other program installed.

But the popular method is to either create junction points yourself or just use a program that will do it for you, you will still need to download to the SSD first, which could be difficult depending on the size of the game, not to mention this creates unneeded wear on the drive.

One such program is *Steam Mover*, it will create junctions for you to any desired destination.


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## Phusius (Jun 4, 2012)

All I can afford is the SSD 64gb, it is on sale for 68.99 free ship no tax on Amazon.  I am just going to put my OS and all my drivers on it, and everything else on my HDD.  Thanks guys.  Z68 cache worth doing?  I do have a Z68 motherboard.


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## Psychoholic (Jun 4, 2012)

Steam mover tool as previously posted.

And..  it doesnt move all games (Valve games like HL2, TF2, etc)

Here's a tutorial for moving those games that the mover wont move : 

http://www.heartlessgamer.com/2011/11/tip-how-to-move-steam-games-to-another.html


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## Jstn7477 (Jun 4, 2012)

Phusius said:


> All I can afford is the SSD 64gb, it is on sale for 68.99 free ship no tax on Amazon.  I am just going to put my OS and all my drivers on it, and everything else on my HDD.  Thanks guys.  Z68 cache worth doing?  I do have a Z68 motherboard.



Put your OS and whatever core programs you can on the SSD, and install your games to D:\ (or the letter of your HDD).

I don't use Intel SRT. I just put all my core stuff on my SSD where I feel it will always be fast, when SRT "picks and chooses" bits and pieces what it determines you use often, and once something stops being used it has a chance of being "evicted" from the SSD in favor of some other data. Games don't need an SSD anyway.


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## TheOne (Jun 4, 2012)

Phusius said:


> All I can afford is the SSD 64gb, it is on sale for 68.99 free ship no tax on Amazon.  I am just going to put my OS and all my drivers on it, and everything else on my HDD.  Thanks guys.  Z68 cache worth doing?  I do have a Z68 motherboard.



SRT is a way to go if you can't afford a larger SSD or if you don't want to manage your installs, it won't be as fast as a standalone, but it would be fast enough.

*Intel Z68 Chipset & Smart Response Technology (SSD Caching) Review - Page 4: Application & Game Launch Performance: Virtually Indistinguishable from an SSD - ANANDTech.com*

They used an Intel 311 20GB SSD in the review, and their only real complaint was, other than Intel not allowing SRT on older chipsets, that the drive was to small and evicted data after installing Adobe CS5.5 Master Collection and running 5 applications, of course a 64GB drive has far more space to store data.



Psychoholic said:


> Steam mover tool as previously posted.
> 
> And..  it doesnt move all games (Valve games like HL2, TF2, etc)
> 
> ...



The program itself is very basic, it targets the "_C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\common\_" folder by default, but you can change it to any folder you like and make a junction point out of any subfolder.

The problem with Valve games is that some of them are for the most part GCF files which are stored in your account folder, moving that will of course move any Valve game, you should be able to move the actual game folder, but it will only be a few hundred MB usually.


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## theeldest (Jun 4, 2012)

Phusius said:


> All I can afford is the SSD 64gb, it is on sale for 68.99 free ship no tax on Amazon.  I am just going to put my OS and all my drivers on it, and everything else on my HDD.  Thanks guys.  Z68 cache worth doing?  I do have a Z68 motherboard.



Yes (see my config).

I usually stick to a couple specific games for a few weeks before moving to something different. SRT will learn the games after a couple launches and then they load much more quickly after then.

I do keep some games on my second SSD directly and I there isn't much difference in loading times between directly installed on the SSD and via SRT caching.


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## Aquinus (Jun 4, 2012)

You could start using Junctions and what not in NTFS, but honestly running just Steam on your SSD but not games defeats the entire purpose of putting Steam on the SSD since it doesn't speed up games. RAID-0 of Force GTs makes a difference loading D3, I don't spend more then 2 seconds waiting on any loading screen so it is worth it, but you should just install it on your physical drive. That is what I've been doing while only selectively putting certain applications on my SSDs.

Maybe this will help? You could install Steam on your hard drive and put certain game files on the SSD and create links or junctions for certain files.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NTFS_junction_point


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## Psychoholic (Jun 4, 2012)

TheOne said:


> The problem with Valve games is that some of them are for the most part GCF files which are stored in your account folder, moving that will of course move any Valve game, you should be able to move the actual game folder, but it will only be a few hundred MB usually.




Correct.. which is why i posted the link to the tutorial on creating the links.


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## Mussels (Jun 4, 2012)

i have a program that automates it, called steam mover i think. will edit a link into this post.


http://www.traynier.com/software/steammover


install to HDD, and only move the games you want to SSD.


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