Howdy howdy guys, Ponchato here, and today I’m gonna show you how to install Steam
games on an external drive.
[Intro]
If you're running out of storage for your games, or you want to use a second drive to
store games (rather than on your boot SSD), this video is for you.
I’ll show you how, step by step, and don’t worry: it's really easy, it's all within Steam,
and games are very playable even on older USB 2.0 external drives.
And by the way, this process is the same if you’re using an internal drive.
Now, to install Steam games on your external drive, first, make sure your drive is plugged
in and working.
Then, open Steam and access the settings menu by clicking "Steam" in the top left corner,
then clicking on "Settings".
Once that’s open, go to the "Downloads" tab, click the "Steam Library Folders" button,
and then click "Add Library Folder".
A new window will pop up asking where to put the new Steam Library.
Click the drop down menu with your current Steam library (probably something like "C:\Program
Files (x86)\Steam\"), then click your external drive (labeled "D:\" in this example) and
click "New Folder...".
Click OK to create a folder with the default SteamLibrary name, press "Select", and close
the settings menus.
Steam is now ready to install games on your new drive.
To do that, go to your games library, click Install for the game you want on your external
drive, then open the drop-down menu under "Choose location for install:".
Select your external drive, then install the game as you normally would.
That's all there is to it!
Now you can easily add more storage for games, without needing to spend a ton on a bigger
SSD.
But what if I already have the game installed and want to move it to my new drive?
As a matter of fact, as I was recording this video, Steam asked me to update and one of
the new features was the ability to move already-installed games between Steam libraries.
So, you can add a drive and just move games straight to it.
They made it easy to do but kind of hard to find.
Go to your game library, right click on the game you want to move to your external drive,
and click “Properties.”
Go to the Local Files tab, then click “Move Install Folder…”
Make sure your external drive is selected, then click “Move Folder.”
Steam will automatically move that game onto your external drive, freeing up space on your
main drive.
This works on just about any type of expansion storage: USB sticks, portable hard drives,
and external SSDs.
I recommend the Seagate Expansion 1TB because it offers both large storage space and very
good speeds for an external drive.
They also have a 2TB and 3TB version.
Click on the card in the upper right corner of this video to see my review and benchmarks
of that drive.
For faster load times, you can choose a high performance thumb stick (really, a small SSD)
like the Mushkin Enhanced Ventura, which has 120GB of storage for about $70.
If you’re on a tighter budget, a simple USB stick like the SanDisk Ultra 64GB is only
16 bucks.
That aint bad.
So guys if you liked this video, hit the like button, if you want to see more, hit subscribe,
and if you have any questions or suggestions for future videos, leave em in the comments below.
Thanks for watching, I hope I helped, and I’ll see you guys in the next video.