Tutorial : Moving Steam games between computers

[doomgiver]

I recently got a new computer for myself, and i wanted to try out my Steam games on it.
Unfortunately, it seemed that i'd have to re-download my entire library of games
Now, i get 15GB at 1 mbps under FUP, but thats not enough to cover my needs, and i do need to browse the net too.
So, i searched high and low for a definite solution to my problem, and uncovered a lot of "tips and tricks"

i list them here :
1. copy the whole Steam folder to the new computer
2. install steam in new comp, then paste the "steamapps" folder only
3. same as 2, except, delete everything except steam.exe and steamapps folder, and then run steam, so that it downloads just the steam files

after any of these, i was supposed to go to steam, and click each game and "check integrity of files", so that steam could know that the files were there, and didnt need to be re-downloaded.
unfortunately, in most cases, steam refused to start, though i hit potluck with the 2nd method, and managed to copy over one game(zombie shooter 2) with it.

now, i present to you THE foolproof method to transfer steam games between 2 computers.
i do believe that its possible to transfer the games between 2 different computers with different accounts, though i havent tried it yet.(this means that you'd be able to take steam games from your computer and give them to a friend, provided he has purchased the game, and not yet installed it)

Here goes :

1. Install Steam in both computers
2. Run Steam in the source computer
3. Click "Steam" in the menubar of the Steam client
4. Select "Backup and restore games" option
5. Select which games you wish to backup
6. Get the backup folder to the destination computer
7. Repeat steps 2-4
8. Select which games you wish to restore
9. Voila!!! You now have your games back!!!
10. ????
11. Profit!

If you happen to have a external HDD, you are in luck, as Steam backups are amazingly huge (almost the size of the actual games, themselves)

If not, then divide the backup folder into multiple RAR volumes, and use a large capacity pen drive, or even connect the two computers together, if you happen to be on Windows 7, using the homegroup. Else, you can use a FTP client like Filezilla or Everything's inbuilt HTTP/FTP capablity to transfer the files.

will add pics later, maybe.

 

[Digital Fragger]

awesome, thanks.
and there's also an useful trick to move the whole steamapps folder or individual games from one partition to another partition of the system, incase you are low on space in the partition on which steam was installed. I don't remember it but it uses "dlink" command and creates a junction between partitions.
or you can use SteamTool Library Manager which does the exact same thing easily.

 

[thetechfreak]

So I was backing up a game before deleting as I did not play it anymore,and guess what the Steambackup.exe file was missing. Game was Gta 4. Unfortunately I had already deleted local cache files when I found this out. So probably the next time I might want to play I gotta re download.

 

[Digital Fragger]

^^ yeah, unfortunately you have to re download everything if you don't have the physical disk.
Else, you can copy the game files from your friend into a pendrive, start download in steam and pause it immediately so that steam creates the required folders, paste the files from the pendrive into the respective folders and resume download on steam, and withon seconds you're done.

 

[thetechfreak]

@Digital Fragger I don't have a Physical Disk of GTA IV(as got it from Steam directly) and I think none of my friends have working disks of it.

Will redownload whenever I want to play

anyways I can get the backups to work? they are CSD files mostly with couple of accompanying small sized CSM and SIS files.

 

[JojoTheDragon]

Physical Disk(the retail, original) features GFWL. Using it will only end up with 2x installation of the same game. Ofcourse, you can uninstall the retail version.

 

[thetechfreak]

No no. Thing is my copy is NOT a retail copy. Got it direct through Steam did a download to play hence have no physical discs now. And the backup files as I alredy said before miss a .exe file needed to reinstall. So I have to re-download. My backup files are pretty much dead weight.

 

[JojoTheDragon]

In that case, you can use Phoenix Extractor to extract the .sid files.
Problem Solved.