How do you move Steam games to an external hard drive?

Due to some sort of technical limitation in either OS X or Steam's storage methodology there is no way to change the storage location at this time. They have stated that they are aware of the request for this feature (from myself too) but as far as I know have no way to implement it right now.

I'd love to point Steam at my Drobo rather than my iMac's paltry 250GB internal Drive.

*Smack* I just realized you are talking about XP. When you install steam it asks you for the install directory. You can change this to an external drive (E:, F:, etc...). This is the only way and time you can dictate the install directory for Steam on Windows. You'll have to uninstall and reinstall steam to designate a different drive/directory.

You'll need to format it as NTFS.

On the OS X side of things, wouldn't setting up a symlink/alias where Steam wants to put its files solve the issue?

Just have it point wherever you want.

You can just install steam on your external drive and then everything will download there by default..

jakeguy99 said:

You can just install steam on your external drive and then everything will download there by default..

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Not on OS X. Just Windows.

The thread starter stated "windows xp" not OSX.

Don't believe them! Windows Steam can be moved. See link.

Steam Support-How to move your Windows Steam installation.

See the link for the full description:
The following instructions are a simple way to move your Windows Steam installation along with your games:

1. Exit the Steam client application.
2. Browse to the Steam installation folder for the Steam installation you would like to move (C:\Program Files\Steam by default).
3. Delete all of the files and folders except the SteamApps folder and Steam.exe
4. Cut and paste the whole Steam folder to the new location, for example: D:\Games\Steam\
5. Launch Steam and log into your account.

Steam will briefly update and then you will be ready to play. All future game content will be downloaded to the new folder (D:\Games\Steam\SteamApps\ in this example)



If you encounter any errors during the move process or when Steam is launched from the new location, it may be necessary to perform a more thorough process:

1. Exit the Steam client application.
2. Browse to the Steam installation folder for the Steam installation (continuing the from the last section example, this would be the new location of D:\Games\Steam\.
3. Move the SteamApps folder from the Steam installation folder to your desktop.
4. Review the Uninstalling Steam topic for instructions to uninstall Steam (this must be done to remove your old Steam installation settings from the Windows Registry).
5. Review the Installing Steam topic for instructions to re-install Steam to the desired location.
6. Move the SteamApps folder into the new Steam installation folder to copy all of your downloaded game content, settings, and saved games to the new location.
7. Start Steam and log in to your existing Steam account to confirm that the move was successful.


For moving your Mac Steam installation see This MacRumors guide.

Thanks. Now if Sam and Max 3-04 would release!

what would moving my windows 7 steam stuff to an external drive do in terms of playing speed.

i have a 2009 mini so its usb 2. i have no idea what the drive speed is of the external drive, its just a WD 2 tb drive.


also, the drive is formatted exfat, would this be a problem? ive another drive which is partitioned HFS+/exfat, i could make the 2nd partition NTFS if needed but then its not accessible from mac.

kaltsasa said:

Due to some sort of technical limitation in either OS X or Steam's storage methodology there is no way to change the storage location at this time. They have stated that they are aware of the request for this feature (from myself too) but as far as I know have no way to implement it right now.

I'd love to point Steam at my Drobo rather than my iMac's paltry 250GB internal Drive.

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For Steam on Mac, I've not tried it since 2011, but check out the Steaming Your Mac Guide which links to this Moving Steam Content Guide. It used to work!

Edit: Just realized I was replying to a post from 2010... that I'd all ready read! :-\

Huntn said:

For Steam on Mac, I've not tried it since 2011, but check out the Steaming Your Mac Guide which links to this Moving Steam Content Guide. It used to work!

Edit: Just realized I was replying to a post from 2010... that I'd all ready read! :-\

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You can choose where to store games in steam now. No need for symlinks anymore thankfully (some games doesn't really work well with them)

cluthz said:

You can choose where to store games in steam now. No need for symlinks anymore thankfully (some games doesn't really work well with them)

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This RockPaperShotgun article refers to steps to set an initial Steam install in Windows Steam, during the beta, by adding "-dev" to the end of the Steam.exe application name. Not sure if this works on Mac...

The symbolic link I mention is just to tell Steam where to find its game content folder. How about for moving Steam Content later after you have installed Steam? I don't know, but I assume if the ability is not now built into Steam (?), you'd need a way of telling the Steam App where to find content? That is the question to be answered.

Steam has you by the wassits every way you turn, people are starting to learn this, I want nothing to do with them anymore myself.

Washac said:

Steam has you buy the wassits every way you turn, people are starting to learn this, I want nothing to do with them anymore myself.

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buy what- games?

Huntn said:

buy what- games?

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Sorry that should have been by.

Washac said:

Sorry that should have been by.

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No problemo. It depend upon how you view it. I don't like the fact that I have to negotiate with Steam to play a game, especially solo games and I have to make special arrangements to play a game offline. Bastardos! I also don't like that I am precluded from ever selling a game I purchased. Of course this is the dream of game publishers and media moguls. But if I buy it, I should be able to sell it. Why? Because I'm not renting it.

As I say this, I am reminded of how virtually every MMO works. Can't sell those either, at least not normally unless you talking about a character, which is on the sly. However, despite that, I admit that there are some deals there on occasion, and games you'd not be able to play otherwise, if you don't mind the other stuff. On Mac that might be Half Life or Half Life2.



For Windows Steam, I'm thinking of Vampire the Masquerade. Love that game. Love that vampire (Jeanette).

Huntn said:

The symbolic link I mention is just to tell Steam where to find its game content folder. How about for moving Steam Content later after you have installed Steam? I don't know, but I assume if the ability is not now built into Steam (?), you'd need a way of telling the Steam App where to find content? That is the question to be answered.

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You can do this by going to the downloads+Cloud tab in preferences and selecting steam library folders. You can make as many library folders as you want wherever.

Cougarcat said:

You can do this by going to the downloads+Cloud tab in preferences and selecting steam library folders. You can make as many library folders as you want wherever.

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Thanks, I'll check this out and report back. You know of a link online that speaks of this?

Huntn said:

Thanks, I'll check this out and report back. You know of a link online that speaks of this?

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http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2012/09/11/finally-an-in-built-way-to-choose-steam-install-locations/

Cougarcat said:

You can do this by going to the downloads+Cloud tab in preferences and selecting steam library folders. You can make as many library folders as you want wherever.

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I'm working on Mac Steam, not Windows. I've found this on Mac Steam and it speaks of "adding new steam folders on multiple drives". However, when I select Steam Library Folders, I get an option to add a new "library" folder. I'm not sure if this is a reference to the Mac's library or Steam library. And once I'm in there, I don't see a way to navigate to another drive to install a steam app folder there...What am I missing? Thanks!

Huntn said:

I'm working on Mac Steam, not Windows. I've found this on Mac Steam and it speaks of "adding new steam folders on multiple drives". However, when I select Steam Library Folders, I get an option to add a new "library" folder. I'm not sure if this is a reference to the Mac's library or Steam library. And once I'm in there, I don't see a way to navigate to another drive to install a steam app folder there...What am I missing? Thanks!

Click to expand...

It's talking about Steam Libraries. I just tried it and I see what you mean--it lists only my internal drive. Probably a bug, email valve?