Is it possible to move Steam game files to external HD?

[chris watton]

I now have too many games downloaded on my laptop (250GB HD), and only 40 GB left. Now, I could remove the files from the HD, but they take so long to re-download.
Is it possible to move them to an external HD (1TB), would Steam allow this?

[Cerberus90]

I'm not sure you could have some games on the external drive, and still be able to play them in steam.

But if you want to backup the ones that you don't play, you can go into the steam install directory and then into the steamapps folder, then either in the common or 'your username' folder and copy the folders/files for the game.

Heres a link for moving the steam folder without reinstalling.

clicky

Although, running games from an external hard drive may prove problematic, especially if its a USB external drive.

[chris watton]

Thank you for that - I have run games via an external HD before without any issues - it's just that, with the average game now being between 10 and 20 GB, and an average download rate of about 36kps, I don't fancy deleting the local content...

[james_gt3rs]

You can use the Steam Backup feature to make DVD backups. However, you can store (and run) these files on an external hard drive instead.