[SOLVED] Moving Steam Folder to Reduce File Size to Copy Drive

[Ethonodon]

I'm looking to purchase a 1TB SSD to replace my old and slow 2TB HDD as my system drive. Problem is, because it's only 1TB, I need to reduce my current hard drive's used storage (currently around 1.7TB) to 1TB in order to copy the drive. In order to do this quick and easy, I figured I'd simply move my Steam folder to an external drive I use for these sorts of things, copy the rest of the HDD to the SSD, then move media files and whatnot back to my HDD, then throw my steam files back onto the SSD, since I'm looking to run primarily just my system and a few games off of that, with all my media and garbage on my HDD.

However, I'm not quite an expert on Steam and how it installs its games, and I'm not sure how I'd need to go about removing the Steam folder, copying the rest of the drive, then adding it back later.

If anyone has any knowledge as to how I need to go about this, help would be greatly appreciated. I'm not sure if simply adding and removing the folder will mess with the installation, especially given I'd be migrating it to a new drive twice- once to my external drive that I use for backups and the like, and then again back to the new SSD once I've put the rest of my files back on my HDD.

I understand that this may not be well worded and I may need to clarify some things that I poorly expressed in my explanation.

Essentially my plan is:
-Move Steam folder from HDD to backup drive
-Copy all remaining files from old HDD to new SSD, to make the SSD my system drive
-Move all extraneous files on SSD back to old HDD
-Move Steam folder from backup drive to SSD

 

[USAFRet]

Steam has a built in function to move game installs to other drives.

This is from a few years ago, and the specific commands may have been updated a little.
But the general concept...

Steam games location
In the steam client:
Steam
Settings
Downloads
Steam Library Folders
Add library folder

To move an already installed game
Games library
Right click the game
Properties
Local Files
Move Install Folder

 

[Ethonodon]

Steam has a built in function to move game installs to other drives.

This is from a few years ago, and the specific commands may have been updated a little.
But the general concept...

Steam games location
In the steam client:
Steam
Settings
Downloads
Steam Library Folders
Add library folder

To move an already installed game
Games library
Right click the game
Properties
Local Files
Move Install Folder

Ah, I see. This is very helpful! Another question: is it possible to have different Steam games installed on different drives at the same time? For instance, if I only want to install a few high priority games on my SSD, but every other game on my HDD- is that possible? Or do they all have to be on the same drive?

 

[USAFRet]

Ah, I see. This is very helpful! Another question: is it possible to have different Steam games installed on different drives at the same time? For instance, if I only want to install a few high priority games on my SSD, but every other game on my HDD- is that possible? Or do they all have to be on the same drive?

Yes.
Each drive can have a Steam install location.

 

[Ethonodon]

Yes.
Each drive can have a Steam install location.

Awesome. So it sounds like my plan should work?

 

[USAFRet]

Awesome. So it sounds like my plan should work?

Yes.

 

[Ethonodon]

Yes.

Well, great! Thanks for your help.