Steam - Multiple Hard Drive Support? - Page 13

11-03-2011, 11:45 AM

Just wanted to thrown in my support for this feature; for the same, increasingly common, scenario of a small SSD for selected games, with a large standard SATA drive for (the majority of) games that don't need the speed of the SSD.

11-03-2011, 07:32 PM

Bump! 120gb SSD, 2tb hard drive, so many steam games... Valve, make this happen. Seriously.

yahooo! · 11-04-2011, 10:09 AM

Just built myself a new computer and ready to install steam. Sure wish I could install it on the shiny SSD, and the games on it's big brother, Mr. 2TB. Guess it'll have to wait until later...

CrazyTerabyte · 11-04-2011, 10:16 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by yahooo!

Just built myself a new computer and ready to install steam. Sure wish I could install it on the shiny SSD, and the games on it's big brother, Mr. 2TB. Guess it'll have to wait until later...

There is a workaround: http://stefanjones.ca/steam/
Which was also mentioned at: http://forums.steampowered.com/forum...d.php?t=664376

Still, built-in support for that in Steam would be welcome.

Epsilon · 11-04-2011, 11:29 AM

I'm reasonably sure that the new content system will have support for different install locations; the new .acf files contain the games' install path, for instance.

I'd be willing to bet that the feature will be surfaced in the UI sometime after every game on Steam is rolled over to the new system.

S1N1ST3R · 11-04-2011, 08:27 PM

Just wanted to drop by and say I am all for this.

3asytarg3t · 11-15-2011, 10:16 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Elmokill

Bump! 120gb SSD, 2tb hard drive, so many steam games... Valve, make this happen. Seriously.

This.

I mean come on, this is something you guys should of had done years ago, literally, years.

Darkstorne · 11-17-2011, 11:47 AM

240GB SSD, specifically bought for Elder Scrolls games. I bought the retail versions of Oblivion and Morrowind, installed them to the SSD without issue, modded them to high heaven.

Bought the retail version of Skyrim, was FORCED into installing it on the HDD that Steam is installed on, and now can't benefit from the awesome stream-loading that SSD's provide in open-world games.

Another thing to note: Origin provides the option to install games to multiple drives. If the weaker competition can do it, Valve should have no excuse, right? I'm a big fan of Steam, and I know they can make it happen. I'm sure it's a question of 'when' rather than 'if'. Please make it sooner rather than later!

CrazyTerabyte · 11-17-2011, 06:49 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Darkstorne

Bought the retail version of Skyrim, was FORCED into installing it on the HDD that Steam is installed on, and now can't benefit from the awesome stream-loading that SSD's provide in open-world games.

See my post #184 for a workaround.

Darkstorne · 11-18-2011, 11:04 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by CrazyTerabyte

See my post #184 for a workaround.

Whoah! It WORKED! I really wasn't expecting that. It's so simple too. Completely idiot proof!

This just makes me more frustrated with Steam Support though. If people like you (or whoever made this program) can put together an unofficial workaround that works so well and easily, then why the hell can't Steam pull it off with their full-time paid employees? Grrrr...

Thanks for the link though! It's really made my day!

Vithigar · 11-18-2011, 11:26 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by yahooo!

Just built myself a new computer and ready to install steam. Sure wish I could install it on the shiny SSD, and the games on it's big brother, Mr. 2TB. Guess it'll have to wait until later...

...you want to install Steam itself on the SSD and put the games, which would actually benefit from the SSD's speed, on the HDD? You sure you don't have that backward?

CrazyTerabyte · 11-18-2011, 11:29 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Darkstorne

This just makes me more frustrated with Steam Support though. If people like you (or whoever made this program) can put together an unofficial workaround that works so well and easily, then why the hell can't Steam pull it off with their full-time paid employees? Grrrr...

Because every new feature that gets added, it's a whole new layer of complexity and possible new bugs... And it must work with very different system configurations, under very different and unexpected situations. These things are specially bad if you think about how many less-tech-savy people use the software and will not be able to fix or understand why it won't work (they will just complain "it doesn't work (for me)").

I'm also a software developer, I'm saying this from my perspective. (and no, I didn't write that tool)

Hoooooooar · 11-20-2011, 02:46 PM

elder scrolls has come out and i still don't have this option, just a friendly ol bumpity bump (everytime i get a game i want on my SSD i bump this thread)

Lipoly · 11-22-2011, 01:58 PM

I just bought Battlefield 3 (on Origin, which has this features btw)...I'm now faced with the fact that I need to upgrade my computer.

My new computer will naturally have an SSD which will not be large enough to fit all the steam games I want to install and I'll be damned if I'm going to not use it at for any of my Steam games b/c Steam has this ridiculous limitation.

Implement this feature now!

11-22-2011, 03:35 PM

Hi, just wanted to add my two pennies worth. I am for this feature. I am currently using an app for windows called Steam Tool which works nicely.

I have seen a few people mention that one of the problems is that Steam still supports XP and that OS has incomplete support for NTFS junctions or something like that.

Why is this a problem?

It doesn't matter. The only reason people are using symlinks and junctions at the moment are because Steam has to be fooled into looking into a different place from where it expects the files to be. If the ability to install to multiple locations was built into Steam the XP problem goes away, as it could just use the file paths, and maybe have a central file that told it where the install folders were on the computer.

I agree that there will be stupidity caused by people trying to install to removable USB sticks and external HDDs that will then become unplugged etc. causing Steam to trip up. Windows knows which drives are removal - get Steam to retrieve that data and prevent installations to those drive letters. For those drives that are removable but don't appear as such (happens with some USB sticks) then those people will just have to risk the possibility of a corrupted game install. As long as Steam throws up a warning message during download and install that the user must acknowledge then Valve is covered.

It would be a shame if Steam never added this functionality - if third party bedroom coded apps can do the much more complex task of moving a game and fooling Steam into thinking a game is in a different place then it shouldn't be too much work for them to implement it into the client themselves in a far more elegant way, especially when their competitors have the functionality already.

11-22-2011, 01:58 PM	#194
Lipoly Join Date: Jan 2010 Reputation: 50 Posts: 32	Needed I just bought Battlefield 3 (on Origin, which has this features btw)...I'm now faced with the fact that I need to upgrade my computer. My new computer will naturally have an SSD which will not be large enough to fit all the steam games I want to install and I'll be damned if I'm going to not use it at for any of my Steam games b/c Steam has this ridiculous limitation. Implement this feature now!

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11-03-2011, 11:45 AM	#181
unormal Guest Posts: n/a	Just wanted to thrown in my support for this feature; for the same, increasingly common, scenario of a small SSD for selected games, with a large standard SATA drive for (the majority of) games that don't need the speed of the SSD.

11-03-2011, 07:32 PM	#182
Elmokill Guest Posts: n/a	Bump! 120gb SSD, 2tb hard drive, so many steam games... Valve, make this happen. Seriously.

11-04-2011, 10:09 AM	#183
yahooo! Join Date: Apr 2011 Reputation: 5 Posts: 89	Just built myself a new computer and ready to install steam. Sure wish I could install it on the shiny SSD, and the games on it's big brother, Mr. 2TB. Guess it'll have to wait until later...

11-04-2011, 11:29 AM	#185
Epsilon Join Date: Jan 2003 Reputation: 1834 Posts: 5,328	I'm reasonably sure that the new content system will have support for different install locations; the new .acf files contain the games' install path, for instance. I'd be willing to bet that the feature will be surfaced in the UI sometime after every game on Steam is rolled over to the new system.

11-04-2011, 08:27 PM	#186
S1N1ST3R Join Date: Oct 2011 Reputation: 0 Posts: 25	Just wanted to drop by and say I am all for this.

11-17-2011, 11:47 AM	#188
Darkstorne Join Date: Apr 2010 Reputation: 0 Posts: 3	240GB SSD, specifically bought for Elder Scrolls games. I bought the retail versions of Oblivion and Morrowind, installed them to the SSD without issue, modded them to high heaven. Bought the retail version of Skyrim, was FORCED into installing it on the HDD that Steam is installed on, and now can't benefit from the awesome stream-loading that SSD's provide in open-world games. Another thing to note: Origin provides the option to install games to multiple drives. If the weaker competition can do it, Valve should have no excuse, right? I'm a big fan of Steam, and I know they can make it happen. I'm sure it's a question of 'when' rather than 'if'. Please make it sooner rather than later!

11-20-2011, 02:46 PM	#193
Hoooooooar Join Date: Mar 2009 Reputation: 0 Posts: 28	elder scrolls has come out and i still don't have this option, just a friendly ol bumpity bump (everytime i get a game i want on my SSD i bump this thread)

11-22-2011, 03:35 PM	#195
beneaton4 Guest Posts: n/a	Hi, just wanted to add my two pennies worth. I am for this feature. I am currently using an app for windows called Steam Tool which works nicely. I have seen a few people mention that one of the problems is that Steam still supports XP and that OS has incomplete support for NTFS junctions or something like that. Why is this a problem? It doesn't matter. The only reason people are using symlinks and junctions at the moment are because Steam has to be fooled into looking into a different place from where it expects the files to be. If the ability to install to multiple locations was built into Steam the XP problem goes away, as it could just use the file paths, and maybe have a central file that told it where the install folders were on the computer. I agree that there will be stupidity caused by people trying to install to removable USB sticks and external HDDs that will then become unplugged etc. causing Steam to trip up. Windows knows which drives are removal - get Steam to retrieve that data and prevent installations to those drive letters. For those drives that are removable but don't appear as such (happens with some USB sticks) then those people will just have to risk the possibility of a corrupted game install. As long as Steam throws up a warning message during download and install that the user must acknowledge then Valve is covered. It would be a shame if Steam never added this functionality - if third party bedroom coded apps can do the much more complex task of moving a game and fooling Steam into thinking a game is in a different place then it shouldn't be too much work for them to implement it into the client themselves in a far more elegant way, especially when their competitors have the functionality already.