Steam Multiple HDD Install Solution - SSD Full? Look here!

[Phatboy69]

Hi All,

After having steam for a few years now and going through copying games too and from the limited 120GB SSD capacity from backup copies on a HDD, I got sick of it and found a new solution that works flawlessly to have steam games on the SSD and also on another HDD! (in my case an external USB3 RAID array)

This program called linkmagic uses NTFS junction points to create something like symbolic links, from a directory in your steam/steamapps/common/"game folder name" to another folder on another drive of your choice! The game folder names must match exactly.. and you have to delete the content from the original steam folder after you've copied it to the new folder/drive. Then you just leave the original steam game folder name and link it to its new home. You end up with what looks like a shortcut arrow on your game folder and your files "appear" to be in there but they're actually just linked!

http://www.rekenwonder.com/linkmagic.htm

Great for migrating other apps too without re-installing!
This way your most commonly used stuff goes on the SSD, when you don't need it so much just move it to a new drive and link it!

A couple limitations and advice!

Backup your game folder, somewhere else before you try this in case you **** it up!

Installing a new game still has to have sufficient space in the original steam folder, once installed though, you can copy it across, delete the original content and then link it.

If your re-installing from a previous backup copy it will still work though!
You can put your backup copy in its new permanent home then create the link, go to steam and install it. Instead of downloading it will just verify the files in the linked directory!

[[XC] Oj101]

Awesome, I'll give this a try

[Aginaridan]

There is a tool specifically for Steam that does this.

http://stefanjones.ca/steam/

[Phatboy69]

There is a tool specifically for Steam that does this.

http://stefanjones.ca/steam/

Yeah I saw that but I dont trust non-system tools that sometimes get broken by app or windows updates. Hasnt been updated in a while. Do you know if it still works?

[Chickenfeed]

Ive been using symbolic link junctions for quite some time. It can all be done through command line in windows so theres no reliance on 3rd party software. I have steam on my raptor and skyrim on my ssd. Quite easy to do as well.

MaximumPC has a decent guide detailing things here : http://www.maximumpc.com/article/how..._system_mklink

[El Mano]

Can this be done on a ram disk?
It would be cool to create a ram disk, copy the files there and link them.

[BrightCandle]

My favourite of the Steam moving tools is the aptly named SteamMover V0.1( http://www.traynier.com/software/steammover). Its got a slightly slicker interface than SteamTool library manager and it shows the command line calls being made to do the copying so you know its really just doing what you would do by hand.

[Gamekiller]

My favourite of the Steam moving tools is the aptly named SteamMover V0.1( http://www.traynier.com/software/steammover). Its got a slightly slicker interface than SteamTool library manager and it shows the command line calls being made to do the copying so you know its really just doing what you would do by hand.

I've been using this one to move my games from my mech. hdd to my ssd. Works great. You don't have to match folder names or anything as far as I can tell.

[Mungri]

I've been looking for something like this. I'm getting a 120 Gb SSD for gaming soon, but only want to move over games that I play a lot or that would benefit from it, particularly Skyrim and Civ V.

[minpayne]

Now we just need to wait for better GB/$ for SSDs with future fabrication process. Due to the recent flood in Thailand, I prefer Crucial M4 512GB, Intel 320 Series 600GB, Samsung 830 Series 512GB as better options for gaming stuff, if there's spare cash.

[Sailindawg]

Great post! I remember that article in Max PC regarding symbolic links. However, I could never make the link between folders work. At that time, I found a program that would make symbolic links for files. Once the program installed, all one had to do was right click a file in your main folder, copy the folder to a ram drive, then click where you wanted the link between the two files.

I did not understand how to handle complete folders. The Steammover app looks like it should do the trick quite well. It does the heavy lifting of making the symbolic links. I'll be giving it a try.

Great thread!

[TEDY]

eh doesnt work most in xp!!

[BrightCandle]

XP NTFS file system didn't support Symbolic links. That functionality came in Vista.

[ColonelCain]

This option is relatively easy, but for those who want even more control you can do it from command line.

So let's say I want to move Skyrim from my Steam directory on my SSD to my HDD (fully close out of steam first though).
Copy the folder to the directory you want it to be in. (In this example, my SSD is "C", HDD is "F", steam is installed on "C", and I want to move skyrim to "F".

In command line:
mklink /J "C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\common\skyrim" "F:\Games\skyrim"
and Enter.
Junction created.

Symbolic links are for individual files I believe, Junctions are for folders.

If I had to recommend what to do if you are using a SSD and HDD set-up (as most are), install Steam to your HDD, and use this functionality to move necessary games to your SSD. I know I'm going to do so next time I reformat.

For those more interested in how this works, MaximumPC has a decent article about it: http://www.maximumpc.com/article/how..._system_mklink

[Sailindawg]

@ColonelCain

Firstly, thanks for the detail on using command line. But how does one remove the symbolic link using command line?

Secondly, what is the correct syntax for the mklink command?

In the MaxPC article, only the target folder had quotes around that command. In your example, both the source folder and target folder are in quotes.

I'm not much on DoS commands. I always mess up the syntax. In trying to use the mklink command as detailed by MaxPC, their examples don't use quotes and I could never get the symbolic link to work.

What is the proper syntax for this command?

[TEDY]

what if i just write down all my games from steam list, and reinstall all to new hdd?

[Sailindawg]

what if i just write down all my games from steam list, and reinstall all to new hdd?

If all one wants to do is move their steam folder to a new hard drive, all one has to do is copy the original steam folder onto the new drive under Program Files. Excecute the steam.exe file inside the steam folder on the new drive and steam will set itself up on that drive. Your games will run direct through the steam client as before. Much quicker than redownloading your games via the steam servers.

What the symbolic links do, is give one the ability to associate files or folders to another drive, such as a ram drive or much faster SSD.

I don't know about you, but I can't / won't spend the $$$ for a 250 G or better SSD. With symbolic links, I can keep the balance of my games on a slower drive and put my games that need a faster I/O subsystem on my space limited SSD.

Games like ARMA 2 benefit from a fast low latency I/O sub system as it streams the game world from the drive. ARMA 2 is very CPU heavy and continually loads large texture files as the game world is created. Loading the game onto a SSD or preloading specific files onto a ram drive helps files to load much quicker. This is where symbolic links come in handy.

[ColonelCain]

@ColonelCain

Firstly, thanks for the detail on using command line. But how does one remove the symbolic link using command line?

Secondly, what is the correct syntax for the mklink command?

In the MaxPC article, only the target folder had quotes around that command. In your example, both the source folder and target folder are in quotes.

I'm not much on DoS commands. I always mess up the syntax. In trying to use the mklink command as detailed by MaxPC, their examples don't use quotes and I could never get the symbolic link to work.

What is the proper syntax for this command?

As far as deleting the link, I guess you could use the del command. I personally just delete the folder 'shortcut' that Windows shows in the folder.

The MaxPC article is a blessing and a curse for when I am showing people this functionality. Their implementations are incorrect (partially). I found that out the hard way after a while of messing with the syntax. The quotes around each object are necessary if there are any spaces in the path. If you don't use quotes cmd will treat anything after the first space as the destination. So for C:\Program Files... , that space after 'Program' is treated as the destination by the file system. Using the quotes tells cmd which is which. The space is still necessary between the quotes.

[NKrader]

haha this is why I have a steam drive

[UZ7]

My favourite of the Steam moving tools is the aptly named SteamMover V0.1( http://www.traynier.com/software/steammover). Its got a slightly slicker interface than SteamTool library manager and it shows the command line calls being made to do the copying so you know its really just doing what you would do by hand.

This is the one I've been using, works great even after reinstalling my Windows drive.

[Bobsama]

I would think you'd do this oppositely. Only copy your favorite programs & games to SSD and use symbolic links there. That way, everything else is still on your normal (& abundant) storage space.

[Gamekiller]

I would think you'd do this oppositely. Only copy your favorite programs & games to SSD and use symbolic links there. That way, everything else is still on your normal (& abundant) storage space.

That's what us normal people are doing.. but I guess people with less games and larger ssds could do it the other way around. That's the only way it kind of makes sense I guess.

[ColonelCain]

I would think you'd do this oppositely. Only copy your favorite programs & games to SSD and use symbolic links there. That way, everything else is still on your normal (& abundant) storage space.

Now that I've gone through it once the 'wrong' way I know how to do it once I reformat my drives again.

[ColonelCain]

Ive been using symbolic link junctions for quite some time. It can all be done through command line in windows so theres no reliance on 3rd party software. I have steam on my raptor and skyrim on my ssd. Quite easy to do as well.

MaximumPC has a decent guide detailing things here : http://www.maximumpc.com/article/how..._system_mklink

I just realized that I completely stepped on chicken feed, I am sorry.