Any issues installing steam in a nonstandard directory?

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sicklebrick
876 Posts
Posted Aug 15, 2012
A while back, I installed steam into d:\steam\ 'cause I prefer typing out paths to using the mouse, and loading games from a separate HD has its advantages, but had issues with Alien Swarm's authoring tools not working properly. I remember mods not compiling properly, but other than that can't remember exactly what.

Planning on shuffling things over soonish though; anyone had issues that were fixed only by moving back to c:\program files\ ?

Cheers :smile:

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Kaleido
272 Posts
Posted Aug 16, 2012
Replied 4 hours later
Yea, the problems arise 'cause you need to have all the games installed inside the steam directory, and steam doesn't play nice with shit getting moved around.

You basically have to do a fresh install of steam (you CANNOT just copy the folders) and then re-install every single game.

If you do that, though, I don't imagine there would be any issues.

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Shane
243 Posts
Posted Aug 16, 2012
Replied 4 hours later
I install mine on a different drive as well, apart from having to verify the cache for games like Portal 2 and L4D2 after any reinstall of Windows no massive issues so far.
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sicklebrick
876 Posts
Posted Aug 16, 2012
Replied 1 hour later
Cheers guys.
The issue wasn't so much reinstalling everything or copying it accross, but using all the SDK's and stuff. Seems fine though :smile:
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HMW
806 Posts
Posted Aug 17, 2012
Replied 23 hours later
I have moved the whole Steam folder before, without much trouble. The only thing you may have to correct, are the file paths in "portal 2\bin\GameConfig.txt". The other files and registry things seem to adapt automatically the next time you start Steam.

(And of course you'll need to update start menu links and stuff like that.)

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Alexander Bell
306 Posts
Posted Aug 17, 2012
Replied 3 hours later
I copied Steam and Portal(2) and Hammer over manually from my other computer (it was in sections - 30gb folder and a 15gb flash drive), I just made a folder in program files 86, named it steam, put everything in my other comp's steam folder in there, and made a folder called portal2 in common -> my username and put all of p2's bits in there.

Other than having to validate the cache on Portal 2, nothing bad happened and everything started right up.

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sicklebrick
876 Posts
Posted Aug 17, 2012
Replied 4 hours later
Cheers HMW, I knew it wouldn't be fun fixing all of my build paths and batch files and stuff , but I'd totally have forgotten all of the gameconfigs.

Good to know you can just copy stuff across either way and patch the holes with the verify tool as well. Loving the font btw Alexander, my mother in law's a fan of comic sans too.

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Alexander Bell
306 Posts
Posted Aug 17, 2012
Replied 13 minutes later
Msleeper did it.
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Vordwann
767 Posts
Posted Aug 17, 2012
Replied 18 minutes later
Alexander Bell, why is your avatar a shitty version of Aicxe's?
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Alexander Bell
306 Posts
Posted Aug 17, 2012
Replied 29 minutes later
I didn't know Aicxe had an ava like this.. I just copied the unread post image (for the entire forum), expanded it in paint, and added an A for Alexander.

I did all this because msleeper gave me the dumbest looking avatar possible.

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Lpfreaky90
2,842 Posts
Posted Aug 18, 2012
Replied 14 hours later
What I did is make a hard copy for the steamapps folder.
My games are on my L drive, but with the c:/() path you can still find them. works like a charm!
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sicklebrick
876 Posts
Posted Aug 18, 2012
Replied 2 hours later
... Damn LP, that hadn't crossed my mind.
Good plan; just gonna junction the whole steam install elsewhere. Cheers :smile:
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DaMaGepy
361 Posts
Posted Aug 21, 2012
Replied 2 days later
I use hardlinking (hardcopy) all the time :smile:
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FelixGriffin
2,680 Posts
Posted Aug 21, 2012
Replied 12 hours later
Wouldn't you have to hardlink every file then?
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ChickenMobile
2,460 Posts
Posted Aug 21, 2012
Replied 4 hours later
Can't you hardlink folders?
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FelixGriffin
2,680 Posts
Posted Aug 21, 2012
Replied 4 minutes later
Not on most drives, because of what it could do to your file system. Using enough ../../../ things should always get you to the root of the drive. But if you hardlink a folder to its child or something weird like that, that doesn't work anymore. And if, say, you hardlinked / to ~, you would have a hard time doing anything at all.
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sicklebrick
876 Posts
Posted Aug 21, 2012
Replied 25 minutes later

A junction ( /J switch) will function the way you'd expect a hardlinked directory to except accross network drives.
I use this when I'm feeling lazy:

http://schinagl.priv.at/nt/hardlinkshel ... llext.html