How to Fix: Move All Steam Games to Another Drive

Infopackets Reader David C. writes:

" Dear Dennis,

I am running out of space on my C drive (SSD) and I would like to move my entire Steam folder to the D drive. Currently I have a 1 TB SSD on C and the D drive is a 4 TB regular hard drive. Every guide I've looked at on the Internet explains how to do move each Steam game one at a time, but I've got over 20 games installed on here and that would take forever. What I would like to do is move all Steam games to another drive in one go. I don't understand why this is so difficult. I'm afraid I may screw something up if I don't do this right - in fact, I had a friend use something called 'Steam Mover' but it messed everything up and he lost all his game saves. I am wondering if this can be done manually? Can you PLEASE help? "

My response:

I asked David if he would like me to have a closer look at the issue using my remote desktop support service, and he agreed.

Below I will discuss my findings.

How to Fix: Move All Steam Games to Another Drive

1. To begin, I suggest backing up the entire C drive to another hard drive using a disk image. When complete, proceed to the next step.
    
2. Prior to moving all your Steam games to another drive, you will first need to register the new path into Steam's configuration. To do so: launch Steam, then click Steam -> Settings (near the top left of the screen). The Settings window will appear; locate and click the "Downloads" sub-menu on the left [pic].
    
3. Next, click the "STEAM LIBRARY FOLDERS" button (near the very top of the screen). This will open a new window; click "ADD LIBRARY FOLDER" [pic], and select the location where you want to move all your Steam games to; in David's case, it was D:\Games\Steam.
    
4. Close all the Steam windows, then navigate to your original Steam installation (usually "C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam") using File Explorer. Make a "Temp" folder here, then move everything into Temp except for "SteamApps" (folder), "UserData" (folder), and "Steam.exe" (file). You can delete the Temp folder once everything has been moved over and is working properly.
    
5. Now it's time to move all the entire Steam folder to the other drive. In David's case, we moved "C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam" to D:\Games\Steam.
    
6. Next, launch Steam.exe from the new destination (example: D:\Games\Steam\Steam.exe); note that the old Steam launcher on the desktop will still be pointing to your old Steam location and therefore it won't work any longer. When Steam launches you will likely need a new authorization code to start the program; this is sent by email or SMS text. This reason for this the authorization request is because the Steam folder was moved.
    
7. Once you're signed in, all your Steam games should be listed, along with the game saves.

I hope that helps.

Additional 1-on-1 Support: From Dennis

If all of this is over your head, or if you need help moving your entire Steam folder to another drive - I can help using my remote desktop support service. Simply contact me, briefly describing the issue and I will get back to you as soon as possible.

About the author: Dennis Faas

Dennis Faas is the owner and operator of Infopackets.com. With over 30 years of computing experience, Dennis' areas of expertise are a broad range and include PC hardware, Microsoft Windows, Linux, network administration, and virtualization. Dennis holds a Bachelors degree in Computer Science (1999) and has authored 6 books on the topics of MS Windows and PC Security. If you like the advice you received on this page, please up-vote / Like this page and share it with friends. For technical support inquiries, Dennis can be reached via Live chat online this site using the Zopim Chat service (currently located at the bottom left of the screen); optionally, you can contact Dennis through the website contact form.