Hard Drive Question

FireFox · March 17, 2015

Hey Guys,

Currently I have three hard drives in my desktop, a WD Blue 500GB for programs and the OS, WD Scorpio Blue 750GB for my games and a WD Green 2TB for main storage. In a few months I will be getting another Samsung 850 EVO though it'll be a 500GB, a new motherboard and CPU (Skylake) when they are released and I want to know if I reinstall when I get the SSD will it ruin my game files?

I've had two people tell me different things, someone said that once I install Steam again everything will be fine and someone else said that it won't work and I'll have to install all of my games again (216GB worth).

Jade · March 17, 2015

If you don't format the drive, the files should stay in tact, but permissions may be messed up and need to be adjusted, but game files should be fine other than that.

@Captain_WD might be able to explain it better, not 100% certain how far his knowledge of drives goes.

LogicalDrm · March 17, 2015

If you keep HDD with games untouched, you only need to install Steams main software and add libraries to where all your games are. There are some tools that do this automaticly. By hand you will need to "redownload" all in which situation Steam first checks libraries for files and then downloads missing stuff. Meaning none.

Captain_WD · March 18, 2015

Hey Guys,

Currently I have three hard drives in my desktop, a WD Blue 500GB for programs and the OS, WD Scorpio Blue 750GB for my games and a WD Green 2TB for main storage. In a few months I will be getting another Samsung 850 EVO though it'll be a 500GB, a new motherboard and CPU (Skylake) when they are released and I want to know if I reinstall when I get the SSD will it ruin my game files?

I've had two people tell me different things, someone said that once I install Steam again everything will be fine and someone else said that it won't work and I'll have to install all of my games again (216GB worth).

Hey FireFox,

What @LoGiCalDrm explained is true. Technically, you don't have to reinstall anything as long as the drive with the games is intact. Steam will first check the libraries if the games are there (as in your case they are) and will simply adjust itself to them and the registry. Simply make sure to adjust the Steam's settings accordingly and everything else should be fine.

Thanks @Jade for mentioning

Unfortunately, I can't get notifications when someone tags me, so if you need my assistance - feel free to contact me via a PM.

Captain_WD.