I need help consolidating Steam Libraries

[JaredB]

I just installed Windows 8 on a new SSD, and I've installed some new games that I bought from the ever so awesome Steam summer sale, but now I want to play some old games, but I don't want to have to re-download them because it will take up alot of time, but more importantly not all games have cloud saves and I don't want to loose my game progress.

 

I want to merge my 2 steam game libraries together, then I'll format the old drive and use it for storage and other stuff.

 

I know that you can add Steam Library folders, but that doesn't move them to the new drive, and even if I just move the entire steam folder to the new drive, It still leaves leave all of the the Steam Program files there taking up space.

 

I've tried copying the steamapps and/or the common folder, but the new PC doesn't see the games.

 

Is there any way to consolidate the 2 libraries together, so that I can delete the old one and not loose any game progress?

 

Any help would be apreciated.

[crazystorm13]

i think you may just have to download them again but i may be wrong

[sysloc]

What's so bad about re-downloading them? Yeah you may lose saves (try looking into each game specifically to see if the saves are salvageable, then keep only those and download the game again, then place saves, etc. game by game) but it is extremely challenging and time consuming going into the registry, changing values and directories, moving files around, basically reinstalling the game manually. Best bet is to just re-download my friend

[crazystorm13]

What's so bad about re-downloading them? Yeah you may lose saves (try looking into each game specifically to see if the saves are salvageable, then keep only those and download the game again, then place saves, etc. game by game) but it is extremely challenging and time consuming going into the registry, changing values and directories, moving files around, basically reinstalling the game manually. Best bet is to just re-download my friend

thats what i was thinking it would just be faster to download rather then edit it and ind the files then copy them all to your ssd

[Vitalius]

Guys, guys, guys, ... I got this. 

I manage 3 Steam Libraries, One on each of my two SSD's and one on my HDD. 

Basically, this is how you move Steam games around and have Steam recognize them.

1. Go to your old drive.
2. Find Steam's folder. (Usually under Program Files (x86) depending on your OS and if you installed it to the default directory)
3. Copy/paste the Entire folder (that's the entire Steam folder) to the new HDD into the same folder that the new Steam folder is in. 
4. It will start copy/pasting and it should automatically say "hey, these two folders have the same name, want to merge them?" And you say "Yes." 
5. It will ask about the files that have the same name, and you should click "Replace all same named files" or whatever is equivalent. You want the new Steam files to be overwritten with the old Steam files so you have all your saves/information.

Now you should have all your files consolidated into 1 library. The problem now is simply to have Steam recognize the Old games. This is simple, however.

1. Right click the game you want it to recognize as being installed in your Library.
2. Select the only Steam folder you should have on the new Drive as the installation point.
3. Wait for it to basically find all the already downloaded files.

Your game should be instantly installed as it will discover the files that are already there so long as they are in the right place (which, if you copy/pasted/merged the Steam folders, they should be exactly where they were in the Old one, but in the New one). 

Repeat for each game. The bigger the game, the longer it takes to discover. If the new computer/Drive needs things like DirectX installed or anything special like that, it should do it on it's own just like it normally does, which shouldn't take more than a second.

I've done this easily over 20-30 times, so I know it works. If you need any help, let me know.

[jbr]

You can backup games on Steam and burn the files on DVD or move to another drive and reinstall without downloading again.

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lAnvP6JaZuM