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Use HDD from previous build?

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Okay, I am just trying to not melt my router when my son downloads all of his Steam library on his new system, but I can't get it to work they way that I want. What I want is to put his 1TB Seagate HDD in his new system with a 120GB SSD and use it for his game storage, without formatting the drive, and I'd like to clone his existing HDD so that we can run the 2 systems side by side to verify that we got everything. My weakest area is in upgrading systems and taking my info with me, and for that reason, I have multiple old HDD's around the house going back to my 486 days.:oops:
So, I have a pair of WD RED 2TB's and I decided to use one of them, temporarily, as a clone. I DL'd the software from WD and started the cloning process. When we install the clone drive in his old system, it is VERY slow and there seems to be data missing, to the tune of 3GB difference between the original and the clone.

Ideas?
 

rtwjunkie

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I'm confused. Are you just cloning the HDD with Steam games for new computer?? If so, you don't need to clone.

1)Just do a simple file copy of all the games in the same folder structure to the new HDD from old PC.

2)Install Steam on new PC and attach new HDD with copies.

3)Have Steam install each game (once you've told it where all the games reside). What it will ACTUALLY do is look, see that the games are there, just not registered with the OS. It will do a brief install for maybe a couple missling files/dll's, register the game in registry, and it will now be playable.

4)No router melting! :D

***For that matter, no copying necessary at all. Just move that Game HDD to the new PC and follow steps 2 only using the old HDD) and 3. That way you know also that you aren't missing anything.
 
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Solaris17

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You actually dont even need to do that. the steam EXE can rebuild its own installation. I keep steam on another harddrive entirely and everytime I format i just double click the steam exe and its like hey this is f!@#$ want me to rebuild? I hit yes and it does a steam update and then its ok to go
 

rtwjunkie

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You actually dont even need to do that. the steam EXE can rebuild its own installation. I keep steam on another harddrive entirely and everytime I format i just double click the steam exe and its like hey this is f!@#$ want me to rebuild? I hit yes and it does a steam update and then its ok to go

Thanks for simplifying my answer even further! This is what I do too. In fact just did a fresh retail install of W10 a month ago (instead of upgrading) and I did it this way too. There's still some minor behind the scenes install/registering going on the first time you hit "play" on each game, but that's it!

U-play works exactly the same way. For each game in the Library, if you are using the old disk, it will give you a choice of "Download" or "Point to Folder with game files (IIRC)." The only oddball I've encountered is Origin, which insists on melting your router by downloading each game in full.
 
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This is,also how I do it. All my games are installed between 2x 2tb wd blacks. Works great if I ever need to do an os reinstall (os resides on a 256gb ssd)
 
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