Harddrive help moving games

[ajuk]

Hi i just got a gaming laptop and all the games have downloaded to the 128gb ssd and now im left with very little space. I have a 1Tb hard drive in the laptop and would like to move the games to that but am worried something will then not be compatible when i try to run the games.

I dont have internet right now so i can't just download them again and choose the other hard drive.
can i just drag the folder over from one hard drive to another?

Thanks for any help

 

[rhysiam]

Are you using Steam?

Here's how: https://support.steampowered.com/kb_article.php?ref=7418-YUBN-8129

 

[i7Baby]

Hi i just got a gaming laptop and all the games have downloaded to the 128gb ssd and now im left with very little space. I have a 1Tb hard drive in the laptop and would like to move the games to that but am worried something will then not be compatible when i try to run the games.

I dont have internet right now so i can't just download them again and choose the other hard drive.
can i just drag the folder over from one hard drive to another?

Thanks for any help

If you 'drag them over' you'll lose the links that they use. Better to re-install them.

 

[ajuk]

Ahh ok well i guess i can't then as i dont have internet here

 

[rhysiam]

So you didn't use Steam then?

If you're really stuck you can move the folders to the second HDD and create symbolic links. They're kind of a like a pointer which directs IO requests to the new location. They're not flawless and can introduce some strange issues, so it's not a good long-term solution. But if you just want a way to play your games for now it'll get you through. Plus it's non-destructive, so if it ends up upsetting a particular game you can always delete the link and move the files back.

Here's how:
- At the start type 'cmd' - right click on the "command prompt" and choose "Run as Administrator"
- Move one game (move them one at a time) from the SSD to your HDD as you normally would
- Then, at the command prompt type: mklink /D "c:\FolderWhereGamesAre\OldPathToGame" "d:\newpathtogame"

Obviously you'll need to correct the path names for your setup.

 

[ajuk]

Yes i did use steam my brother set it all up for me at his house as i dont have internet. So i guess when he downloaded the games it automatically went onto my ssd drive and the 1tb hard drive is empty so i just thought it was best to keep the ssd free and just for the operating system really?

So can i not drag the steam folder over to the other hard drive? will it cause a problem even if i move all the related folders together?

 

[i7Baby]

When you install stuff, use the custom installation option. Then you can change the drive letter to your HDD.