Restoring Backed Up Steam Games

[Bachey]

So I recently reinstalled Windows 7 but before I did so I decided to back up my Steam games to another HDD but I cheated. Instead of hitting the "Back Up" button, I just copied the game files from the Steam directory. Is there anyway to put these back in my Steam directory on my new version on Windows or do I need to redownload all?

 

[RCguitarist]

Put the games in the same folder path that they were before, then tell steam to verify the installs. That should work. So if a game was in C:/Program files/steam/Max Payne 3 before, you need to put the game folder in that exact same spot again. You can verify a games install within steam by right clicking the games name in steam's library listing, clicking properties and then clicking the verify button.

 

[Bachey]

Put the games in the same folder path that they were before, then tell steam to verify the installs. That should work. So if a game was in C:/Program files/steam/Max Payne 3 before, you need to put the game folder in that exact same spot again. You can verify a games install within steam by right clicking the games name in steam's library listing, clicking properties and then clicking the verify button.

I can't seem to do this as it's not installed.

 

[RCguitarist]

Put the games in the same folder path that they were before, then tell steam to verify the installs. That should work. So if a game was in C:/Program files/steam/Max Payne 3 before, you need to put the game folder in that exact same spot again. You can verify a games install within steam by right clicking the games name in steam's library listing, clicking properties and then clicking the verify button.

I can't seem to do this as it's not installed.

Do you have a single storage drive that everything was on and just a single partition on that drive? If so, and you did a fresh install, then yes, you will have to download everything again. That's why it is best to have a partition for windows, and then a partition for everything else. That way if you upgrade windows or have to reinstall it for some reason, everything else remains.

 

[Bachey]

Put the games in the same folder path that they were before, then tell steam to verify the installs. That should work. So if a game was in C:/Program files/steam/Max Payne 3 before, you need to put the game folder in that exact same spot again. You can verify a games install within steam by right clicking the games name in steam's library listing, clicking properties and then clicking the verify button.

I can't seem to do this as it's not installed.

Do you have a single storage drive that everything was on and just a single partition on that drive? If so, and you did a fresh install, then yes, you will have to download everything again. That's why it is best to have a partition for windows, and then a partition for everything else. That way if you upgrade windows or have to reinstall it for some reason, everything else remains.

I have a SSD that has my OS on it and I have a HDD that I put my steam games on.

 

[Bachey]

Please, missing my steam library.

 

[Bachey]

Still searching.

 

[RCguitarist]

Put the games in the same folder path that they were before, then tell steam to verify the installs. That should work. So if a game was in C:/Program files/steam/Max Payne 3 before, you need to put the game folder in that exact same spot again. You can verify a games install within steam by right clicking the games name in steam's library listing, clicking properties and then clicking the verify button.

I can't seem to do this as it's not installed.

Do you have a single storage drive that everything was on and just a single partition on that drive? If so, and you did a fresh install, then yes, you will have to download everything again. That's why it is best to have a partition for windows, and then a partition for everything else. That way if you upgrade windows or have to reinstall it for some reason, everything else remains.

I have a SSD that has my OS on it and I have a HDD that I put my steam games on.

Did your hdd have more than one partition before? I had an hdd with windows on the C partition and games on the E partition, so when i got my ssd, the ssd became C and the entirety of the hdd became E. If steam is looking for your games on C, then of course it wont find them. You should look in steam and see if it has in any of the drop down menus at the top left an option to change the path that it uses to locate the game. If you can change that path lookup to be whatever letter drive your hdd is now, then the verifying the game thing should work.

 

[Simon Ayres]

Try this
http://www.traynier.com/software/steammover

 

[Bachey]

Try this
http://www.traynier.com/software/steammover

Thanks but the the fix to my problem.

 

[Simon Ayres]

you can try staring the download until it actually starts downloading then exit steam copy over the game files and start steam back up, this should add all the registry entries at least

just an idea, it works for origin.

 

[Bachey]

you can try staring the download until it actually starts downloading then exit steam copy over the game files and start steam back up, this should add all the registry entries at least

just an idea, it works for origin.

Oh man, tried that too. No bueno.

 

[Simon Ayres]

So apparently as well as your steam apps folder you needed to back up your app manifest files located steam\steamapps if you just u just copied the game files or the common dir you cant do it.

 

[Simon Ayres]

you can try this
https://github.com/dotfloat/steam-appmanifest

 

[Simon Ayres]

nope that is for linux

 

[Bachey]

So apparently as well as your steam apps folder you needed to back up your app manifest files located steam\steamapps if you just u just copied the game files or the common dir you cant do it.

Damn, that sucks. Thanks for your help man.

 

[Simon Ayres]

only sorry i could not do more