Is it possible to transfer steam games from my laptop to a new desktop through a usb cable?

[Rangerfly]

So i'm gonna be building my new desktop (relatively) soon, and right now all i've got is a laptop would it be possible to install the games onto my laptop then later transfer it to the desktop through just a regular usb cable?

[mxk]

I remember having a game installed on my external HDD, and when I accidentally unplugged it, steam wouldn't detect the game anymore. It might be possible but I think you have to find a way for steam to detect the games.

[Origami Cactus]

USB is host-slave architecture, so i haven't found a way to make it work. If you had firewire it would be easy.

 

You could use an external hdd/memory stick to move games, or move the games through wifi / ethernet.

[Rangerfly]

5 minutes ago, Origami Cactus said:

USB is host-slave architecture, so i haven't found a way to make it work. If you had firewire it would be easy.

 

You could use an external hdd/memory stick to move games, or move the games through wifi / ethernet.

Would using wifi / ethernet be any faster than just outright downloading the games? I've been wanting to do this just because my internet isn't the best and wanted to get my PC up and running as fast as possible.

[Sylvie]

14 minutes ago, Rangerfly said:

So i'm gonna be building my new desktop (relatively) soon, and right now all i've got is a laptop would it be possible to install the games onto my laptop then later transfer it to the desktop through just a regular usb cable?

maybe? you'll have to make sure the games work properly when you transfer them, though.

[Origami Cactus]

2 minutes ago, Rangerfly said:

Would using wifi / ethernet be any faster than just outright downloading the games? I've been wanting to do this just because my internet isn't the best and wanted to get my PC up and running as fast as possible.

Depends on how fast your local network is,usually local network is faster than internet, so i would use that. For example, connect both devices to the router/switch using ethernet, and then share the games folder on your laptop.

[mariushm]

 

Like everyone says... usb is a boss - client type of connection ...pc and laptop are both "boss" - two bosses can't talk between each other.

 

So no, but you could do it with a regular ethernet cable, as long as both laptop and desktop has a 1gbps ethernet card.

 

Either use a switch or router (or modem the ISP gave you) , and connect both laptop and desktop to switch so the two can talk to each other (can also be one wireless and one wired, doesn't matter)

 

Or, you can simply use a regular ethernet cable between both computers and set a unique IP address to each computer manually (because there's no router or modem to give each computer IPs) .. for example you set one to 192.168.0.1 and subnet mask 255.255.255.0 , and the other to 192.168.0.2 and subnet mask 255.255.255.0  and now both computers can talk between them.

 

[GeoSquigg]

are you installing from a disk?

-Buy a USB disc reader for $25 (link)

 

If it's a digital copy,

-Just fire up steam on the desktop and download. I did that when I switched from the aging lap top to my current build.

 

9 minutes ago, mariushm said:

two bosses can't talk between each other.

Nonsense, They do it here at work all the time lol

[BitFog]

28 minutes ago, Rangerfly said:

So i'm gonna be building my new desktop (relatively) soon, and right now all i've got is a laptop would it be possible to install the games onto my laptop then later transfer it to the desktop through just a regular usb cable?

yes there is a way.. Do you have a flash drive or a hard drive

[BitFog]

42 minutes ago, Rangerfly said:

So i'm gonna be building my new desktop (relatively) soon, and right now all i've got is a laptop would it be possible to install the games onto my laptop then later transfer it to the desktop through just a regular usb cable?

open steam on your laptop then on the top left click steam then click backup and restore 

backup the games from you laptop then go to the pc and click steam again and backup and restore but this time restore the games

[SSD Sean]

Or just make a network share folder on the new system you want to move the games to. Move the whole steam folder there. Once moved to new system move steam to the folder you want. Delete everything but steamapps and steam.exe. Launch steam .exe and bam, sign in and you’re games are there. Simple