Installing on a new hard drive

[Charlie_B]

Hi all,

I have an SSD with Skyrim (and Steam) on. I want to install Civ but there isn't enough space left on the SSD, so I would need to install it on one of my other drives. I was surprised to discover there's no clear way to do this through Steam. I was incredulous after a quick google suggested that this isn't possible at all through Steam. Can someone please confirm that this is correct?

This thread:

http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?t=382738

suggests two ways around the problem. The first, a symbolic link, isn't viable because I don't have space on my SSD. The second would involve me installing a third party app I don't want just to manipulate a third party app I don't want just so I can play the game I've bought. That doesn't sound at all reasonable to me. Are there any other ways around this?

 

[FeiLing]

That answer in the thread you mentioned:

Steam doesn't give you options on where to install things, it's pretty lame that way. But you can fake it by simply moving the files after the game is installed to the drive you want it on, and making a symbolic link. That tricks Steam into thinking it's still in the old spot. The command you need to do that is mklink.
(Note: Will only work in Vista or Windows 7)

sounds like pretty much the only thing you can do (if that even works, didn't try it).

So, try to move skyrim on your HDD via symbol link; then you can install CiV on the SSD (which probably benefits more from it than Skyrim anyway).

 

[timtofly]

It seems to me that steam needs it's own hard drive. I would not get less than a 250 Gig either. Now if you have some other games on steam that you do not play, you can delete the local content to clear up some room. Portal 2 itself takes up 12 Gig of space. I have two sons and they both are running on their steam folders between 45 Gigs and 65 Gigs of space.

Trying to keep track outside of steam could get confusing after a while. What happens when you go to delete local content? Will it automatically delete via the false link?

 

[Charlie_B]

Thanks for your replies.

Timtofly - that would defeat the purpose of having a SSD.

FeiLing - that's pretty much what I've had to do. I'm not happy about it; yet another company going out of their way to make it difficult for me to do what I want with the game I've bought.

p.s. Installed Civ earlier. Clicked 'play' just now.

"Completing installation.."

...

"Steam is too busy to let you play your game"

 

[Jabberwockxeno]

Funny, I have the exact same situation, except i'm running out of room, I didn't get there quite yet.

 

[Mark Havel]

The previously linked thread had it right. Use Steam Mover. If you absolutely want to have Civ V on a conventional HDD, you'll gave to move some things around. Maybe you can try to begin download the game, stop Steam, move it with Steam Mover or perform the same actions manually and then restart Steam and resume the download.
I should also point out that I never saw much difference in loading times between SSD and HDD. It seems to usually involve CPU and RAM to a far greater extent.

 

[timtofly]

Having an SSD is to cut down on excesive read and write issues with a HD. If your SSD is only 100 Gig, that does not leave much space for the OS and Steam with a host of games attached. One will either have to get a bigger SSD, or choose to run the OS on one SSD and Steam on another SSD. Or decide to just use an SSD for the OS and a HD for all other storage needs. BTW, if steam supports a software that allows part of it on one drive and part of it on another, that may mean that steam is trying to work with you, but moving any amount of files off of the SSD is also defeating the purpose of the SSD??

 

[Jabberwockxeno]

Having an SSD is to cut down on excesive read and write issues with a HD. If your SSD is only 100 Gig, that does not leave much space for the OS and Steam with a host of games attached. One will either have to get a bigger SSD, or choose to run the OS on one SSD and Steam on another SSD. Or decide to just use an SSD for the OS and a HD for all other storage needs.

Is it even possible to run steam on a hard drive other than the one that the OS is on? I have a 100 gig SSD, and a 1.5 TB HDD. Only got 16 gigs left on the SSD, and the only thing on there is the OS and my steam stuff.

 

[FeiLing]

If you originally didn't install it on C:, no problem.

 

[Mark Havel]

You can copy paste the entire Steam directory at will for that matter. Just update a bit the shorcuts if needed.

 

[timtofly]

You can copy paste the entire Steam directory at will for that matter. Just update a bit the shorcuts if needed.

You will also have to have an e-mail address that gives you the code to log back onto steam after moving the directory, but yes, you can put steam (directory) and all games wherever you feel it needs to be.

My question does the OS have to be on an SSD drive? To me it seems to not make a difference. The swap file should be on the SSD and any game files that you think you will be accessing a lot.

 

[Mark Havel]

You have to put the OS on the SSD. That's the whole point of SSD: cutting access times by two orders of magnitude while access times are the time you are waiting for the OS to load itself and be usable. It does make a difference and overall, you feel like your computer had actually been built in the 21st century.

 

[Jabberwockxeno]

You have to put the OS on the SSD. That's the whole point of SSD: cutting access times by two orders of magnitude while access times are the time you are waiting for the OS to load itself and be usable. It does make a difference and overall, you feel like your computer had actually been built in the 21st century.

But if I moved my steam stuff to a HDD, and left the OS in the SSD, would the game run just as slow as if it was all on the HDD, as fast as it was all on the SSD, or in-between?

 

[timtofly]

I doubt you would see much of a difference, but again, I do not have an SSD to varify that. You can alwyas move steam back if you do not like it.

 

[tokala]

But if I moved my steam stuff to a HDD, and left the OS in the SSD, would the game run just as slow as if it was all on the HDD, as fast as it was all on the SSD, or in-between?

It won't make much of a difference for Civ, as almost everything hangs on the CPU power here.

Other games and applications can profit tremendously from a SSD, depending on how much they depend on HDD access times. Having only savegames and application data on the SSD will already get you most of the positive effects.

Especially on cluttered Windows installations, the most notable effect of a SSD will be much faster booting times, and a vastly improved "snappyness" of any OS-related tasks.

(SSD user for 2 yours here)

 

[Mark Havel]

Indeed, most games doesn't profit much from the SSD as it seems most of the loading workload has to be done by the CPU and RAM. I have Civ V on my SSD and it still takes a few minutes to load the game then a particular save. At least, it doesn't make much noise this way.