Steam Drives?

[DrMacintosh]

Hello I recently got this sick little external USB-C/3.0 1TB HDD  and have been putting it to good use (cough* totally not loading it with anime cough*). 

 

I've already partitioned the drive 50-50, 500GB for personal storage and 500GB for Time Machine Backups. Aside from that I have been looking for other ways to take the load off my MacBook Pros internal 256GB SSD and the number one thing that points to that is Steam. I have know for a while that it is possible to configure a drive to be a "steam library" of sorts where is can store and access your games, however I'm not familiar with how it works. 

 

Do I have to partition the drive again or will it just make its own folders automatically? How does it interact with other computers? and etc. 

 

Thanks! 

[vanished]

Doesn't need a new partition at all, just make a folder and tell Steam to use that.  It has to be empty to start.

[DrMacintosh]

1 minute ago, Ryan_Vickers said:

It has to be empty to start.

The whole drive has to be empty? 

[vanished]

Just now, DrMacintosh said:

The whole drive has to be empty? 

No, you can just make any empty folder into a steam library

[DrMacintosh]

Just now, Ryan_Vickers said:

No, you can just make any empty folder into a steam library

Oh

[Master Disaster]

Open the HDD and create a folder called Steam Games

Open Steam

Open Settings

Click Downloads tab

Click Manage Library Folders

Click Add Folder

Point to the folder you created

Click OK

[ARikozuM]

10 minutes ago, Ryan_Vickers said:

No, you can just make any empty folder into a steam library

You can also add used folders. Steam will grab any available games once connected.

[vanished]

Just now, ARikozuM said:

You can also add used folders. Steam will grab any available games once connected.

Interesting, didn't know that.  I know it will complain if there are any other files or folders though... unless they've finally fixed that pointless limitation

[Master Disaster]

2 hours ago, Ryan_Vickers said:

Interesting, didn't know that.  I know it will complain if there are any other files or folders though... unless they've finally fixed that pointless limitation

Your thinking of removing a folder, if the folder is not empty of all games it won't remove it but you can add a folder which already contains games no problem.

[vanished]

Just now, Master Disaster said:

Your thinking of removing a folder, if the folder is not empty of all games it won't remove it but you can add a folder which already contains games no problem.

I've never removed a library from steam as far as I can recall.  And just to make sure I wasn't crazy I went back and tested, and sure enough:

Nope, no updates have been done, it still works the way I remember.

[Mira Yurizaki]

2 hours ago, Ryan_Vickers said:

Interesting, didn't know that.  I know it will complain if there are any other files or folders though... unless they've finally fixed that pointless limitation

 

2 minutes ago, Ryan_Vickers said:

I've never removed a library from steam as far as I can recall.  And just to make sure I wasn't crazy I went back and tested, and sure enough:

Nope, no updates have been done, it still works the way I remember.

You have to point it to the folder where steamlib.dll is. Not the folder within it (SteamApps?)

 

So for example, I have "D:\Steam Library" and in there is steamlib.dll and SteamApps. I point Steam to "D:\Steam Library", not "D:\Steam Library\SteamApps"

Edited August 1, 2017 by M.Yurizaki

[Master Disaster]

Just now, Ryan_Vickers said:

I've never removed a library from steam as far as I can recall.  And just to make sure I wasn't crazy I went back and tested, and sure enough:

Nope, no updates have been done, it still works the way I remember.

Wow, I've never seen that before, you learn something new every day.

 

I know 100% it doesn't mind it being populated with Steam game files though, I guess that error is only if you've got none Steam related files in the folder?

[vanished]

Just now, M.Yurizaki said:

 

You have to point it to the folder where steamlib.dll is. Not the folder within it (SteamApps?)

I was demonstrating that it won't just accept any random folder unless that folder is empty.  Apparently it will work if you point it to another folder that previously had contained a library and still has the files, but I have not tried that my self.

[DrMacintosh]

1 minute ago, M.Yurizaki said:

steamlib.dll

.dll Hell

[Mira Yurizaki]

Just now, Ryan_Vickers said:

I was demonstrating that it won't just accept any random folder unless that folder is empty.  Apparently it will work if you point it to another folder that previously had contained a library and still has the files, but I have not tried that my self.

I don't think there's anything stopping you from moving steamlib.dll over to any random folder as long as all the games are in SteamApps\common within that folder