tansfer steam games to another computer.

[alphaqforever247]

I have a PC at my gfs place but her internet is really slow. so i have games on my pc that i have at home and i want to transfer some of the steam games to her PC how can i go along to do this? What u have so far is and external drive i can take that with to my gfs place but i dunno exactly what to transfer.

 

[Zepher]

Just copy the Steam folder in the program files folder.
then after you copy that folder to the program files folder on her PC, install Steam and log in.

 

[DeathPrincess]

You might want your game saves too. Their usually lurking somewhere in the my documents folder/my games or close by. Copy those into the same location on the receiving computer (unless it has cloud saves). But yes, just copy the steam apps folder over.

 

[alphaqforever247]

Just copy the Steam folder in the program files folder.
then after you copy that folder to the program files folder on her PC, install Steam and log in.

what if on my gfs computer i already have some steam games installed?

 

[LuminaryJanitor]

But yes, just copy the steam apps folder over.

Some games dump saves/configs in Steam\userdata; probably worth copying that over too.

 

[alphaqforever247]

what if i wanted to to transfer single games?

 

[Godmachine]

what if i wanted to to transfer single games?

Just make a new folder named "steam" on the external drive and open up the original folder on your computer. Now start making copy's of everything BUT the steamapps folder. Now make a new folder inside the new steam folder on your external drive called "steamapps" then open it and make another new folder called "common" then open up the original steam folder on your PC's hard drive then goto steamapps then common and copy and paste the game folders from there to the new common folder on your external drive you made previously.

Then just take it over your GF's , open the new steam folder and launch the Steam.exe. It'll ask for the login info and password , after that it will download a few backround files and launch the client. Then when you select the game list you'll notice the games you copied over are greyed out , just click on the game you want to play and install it as if its the first time , it'll scan your external drive for the game information and quick install then you can play the game on her PC.

Its a bit complex but really considering you can play any game you own on a different system thats pretty sweet.

 

[LuminaryJanitor]

what if i wanted to to transfer single games?

For most third-party games, and some Valve games, you just need to copy the folder in Steam\steamapps\common\, and maybe a couple of loose files in Steam\steamapps\.

For most Valve games, you just need the .gcf archives from Steam\steamapps\, but it can be unclear which of the shared resources you need for which game. If you can afford to download a couple of hundred MB, Steam should pick up anything you missed. If you can spare the disk space, just copy everything and forget about it.

Otherwise, you can use Steam's backup feature on your PC to stick the game files in an archive, though I've found it to be less than reliable in the past...

 

[FrgMstr]

Or you could just use the backup feature in steam and put those games exactly where you want to in a nice zipped up file and import those later.

 

[alphaqforever247]

ohh one more thing i have win 7 on my comp but win xp on gfs will there be a problem?

 

[FrgMstr]

When I tried to do that steam corrupted the zipped files and I had to redownload the full game all over again. So I don't trust that method personally.

I do it all the time without issue. I don't think there is an issue with the protocol used. So you tried it once, did not confirm your backup, and will not use it again because it failed. I have done it 100+ times on testing machines without issue. Your call.

 

[Intel_Hydralisk]

For MASS transfers (entire libraries, or a lot of games):

https://support.steampowered.com/kb_article.php+++++++7418-YUBN-8129

Summary:
- Copy Steamapps folder and steam.exe
- Run steam.exe and steam will download itself

Done.

If she already has steam, just go ahead and copy it into the steamapps folder. It doesn't matter if everything resides in the same folder. If she doesn't own a game, steam just won't let her play it when she's logged in on her account. I actually did that with my ex at one point. She owned orange box and I used her account to play episodes 1 and 2. I had them on my computer in the steamapps folder, but if I log into my account, I simply can't play it even though it's in the folder.

For only a few games:

Use the steam backup feature. The game reinstalls in like 2-5 minutes depending on size. You can install straight from the external. Easy. I do it all the time with my laptop to my desktop. I download steam games either overnight on my laptop or I bring my laptop to campus where it downloads stuff at 10x the speed in my apartment.

 

[Druneau]

Definately use the backup feature for single games. Works great.

I usually download games here and there then backup, drop on my WHS box then install from there when I need. Not 1 failure in over 150 backups.

 

[Intel_Hydralisk]

I've done it about 10 times, and it's failed about 7 or 8. Either locked up during backup or during restoration (consistently, in the same spot) or produced a corrupted archive. This is across a couple of different PCs, and at least half a dozen installs of three different OSs, so I'm pretty sure the problem's not on my end.

I've used it for over 25 games with zero failures. It's probably my favorite feature of steam.

 

[FrgMstr]

I've done it about 10 times, and it's failed about 7 or 8. Either locked up during backup or during restoration (consistently, in the same spot) or produced a corrupted archive. This is across a couple of different PCs, and at least half a dozen installs of three different OSs, so I'm pretty sure the problem's not on my end.

I use it on every motherboard we test..........

 

[ziggo0]

Wouldn't it be easier to have the Steam folder on a fast SATA drive that you just plug into a system for testing? Then you just install Steam and point it to that Steam directory on that drive and you are good to go in a matter of minutes.

When I take my games to my bosses house when I house sit, I'll have them on my external, plug it into his machine, load up steam and point the installer to that external, log in and then all of my games are there and playable, although they load up a bit slower due to the USB2.0 speed limit.

It was easier to do that than transport my cube server case over there, which I had done 2 times already. My box is almost 60lbs.

That's pretty much what I do, just install Steam over the previous directory and everything is there upon logging in. A raid0 split into 2 drives, 2nd one is "Games" with G:\Steam - works every time - except when one of the drives decided to throw LBA errors, oh no!

 

[jeoff_b]

ohh one more thing i have win 7 on my comp but win xp on gfs will there be a problem?

Nope, just follow these guys instructions and it'll work fine. if the game doesn't run properly one of the files might have been corrupted or something in the transfer. In that case you just right click on the game in steam and go to properties, local files, verify integrity of games cache and it will scan all the files to make sure they are all there and working properly.

I just mention this as I have transferred games before and then had issues running them. I do this verify and it usually ends up that a file or a couple files are bad or missing. Steam then just downloads them for you and it usually works fine.