How to move all Steam games to another drive – Guide

Steam games can vary greatly in terms of storage size. Some games are quite small at under 1 GB, whilst other games can be as large as 100 GB.

In regards to the larger games, downloading too many of them can quickly take up your storage space.

In these cases, having more than one hard drive to store your games in can be very useful. If your OS gets too full, the performance of your PC/Laptop can be greatly reduced in quality.

Thus, it is much more reasonable to instead use an external drive to store your larger games in.

Moving all Steam games to another drive

By default, your Steam games will be stored in your C: hard drive. We’ll cover some of the simplest ways by which you can move your Steam games to another drive.

There are two main methods for moving all your Steam games to another drive, both of which we’ll cover in this article.

Ensure that none of the games you move are currently running, and you’re not in the middle of an update or making a Steam transaction.

Close all your games, and check the Task Manager (Windows-key + ‘x’) to see if they’re still running in the background. If not, you’re good to go.

Using another library folder

The first method for moving all your Steam games to an external drive is through the Steam app. If you don’t already have the Steam app downloaded, go to https://store.steampowered.com/about/.

Scroll down until you see the download link. Click ‘install Steam’ to download the app.

The Steam client, by default, has its own feature for moving games to another location. This location can be another hard drive. To start this process, open up the Steam app. Then, go to Steam>Settings.

Click the ‘downloads’ option in the left side tab.

Select ‘Steam library folders’. This will launch the storage manager.

Create a new library folder by clicking the plus symbol, and selecting ‘new folder’.

Make sure that you’ve selected the hard drive you want to move your games to, before creating the new library folder.

The new folder should be created within that hard drive. Name the folder, and click ‘ok’ when you’re done.

Click on the new library folder, and click the ‘select’ option. Then, close all the windows except the Steam app.

Click on ‘library’ to navigate to your Steam library. This is where all your Steam games are located.

Find a game you want to relocate, and right-click it. Next, select ‘Properties’.

Select ‘local files’ in the left side tab, and click ‘move install folder’. This option will only be visible if you have more than one library folder.

Now, choose the library folder you want to move the game to. Select ‘move folder’ to relocate the game.

Repeat this process for all your other Steam games to relocate them to the other hard drive, and any other Steam files you want to move, like screenshots.

Related: Where are my Steam screenshots?

This method can be quite tedious if you’re looking to move all your games, but it’s a safe and sure-fire way of doing so.

If you’re not in possession of too many games, this method could be quite ideal for you. However, doing this one by one can take a while, which is why you may want to move multiple games at the same time.

Using File Explorer

If you own quite a fair amount of games and wish for a more efficient way of relocating them, you can do so through File Explorer. You can migrate all your Steam games by copy-and-pasting them into your other hard drive.

Before attempting this method, make sure that your other hard drive is accessible from the File Explorer.

You can check by opening the File Explorer, and selecting ‘This PC’. All your hard drives should be visible there.

To begin the relocation process, navigate to your Steam folder in the File Explorer. These are where all your Steam game files should be placed.

Go to This PC > Windows (C:) > Program Files (x86) > Steam.

After locating your Steam folder, select your Steam folder and copy it. You can copy it by pressing ‘Ctrl + C’. You can also right-click on the folder after selecting it, and selecting the copy option.

Once you’ve copied the folder, navigate to your other hard drive. Then, paste the folder by pressing ‘Ctrl + V’. You can also right-click on an empty space, and selecting the paste option.

Now, you can either delete your original Steam folder or keep it as a back-up. If you wish to keep the folder, make sure to rename it. If you wish to delete it, go to the folder. Select the folder and press ‘delete’ on your keyboard.

Before deleting the original Steam folder, ensure that all your games still function properly from within the other hard drive.

Afterwards, run the Steam app file from the new Steam folder. This will create another Steam shortcut.

Conclusion

In conclusion, there are a few different methods for migrating Steam games to another hard drive.

The simplest and most basic methods don’t require any third-party apps or programs, or even require you to login to Steam with your password.

See Also: How to reset your Steam password

Depending on how many Steam games you own, you may prefer one method over another. For those who wish for a secure method of relocating their Steam games, you can do so using the Steam app.

You can only move games one at a time this way, so it’s best suited for those with smaller game collections.

If you want a more efficient method for moving your games, you can copy and paste your Steam folder into your other hard drive. This method allows you to migrate all of your Steam games at once.