Steam backups?

[hat]

I just backed up all my steam games to my storage drive... my steam folder is around 80GB, but my backup is only 56GB. I did select every game in the list. Does it back up in a compressed format?

 

[Bo$$]

yeah i think so

 

[PVTCaboose1337]

Yes it compresses itself.

 

[Wrigleyvillain]

I just manually back up the whole steamapps folder. Compression is useful if you have space constraints though I imagine that lengthens the process a fair amount.

 

[hat]

Does it back up your settings too, or just the game? I

 

[wolf]

just the games, but I think steam itself remembers the settings.

 

[overclocking101]

i dont back up i clone that shit, only way to be imo

 

[Wrigleyvillain]

Does it back up your settings too, or just the game? I

By my manual method? Depends on the game. Many still put stuff in various locations on C:

For example, Bioshock 2 saves are in My Documents and the settings in a hidden folder in User/App Data/Roaming or some such crap--same as if I owned the game outside of Steam.

 

[cadaveca]

Does it back up your settings too, or just the game?

"STEAM CLOUD" should be taking care of save games and such for supported apps. Other apps have save files in "My Documents", usually.


STEAM game files are full installs of games, but like games on disc, what you download, and back up, is very much compressed, and given how disc-based games work, I'm sure you can imagine how you maanged to get a backup that's basically 66% of the original.

 

[Wrigleyvillain]

I have never had a problem at all using my manual copy of steamapps folder and saves/settings. So on a fresh Windows install I just install Steam, log in and let it update then quit app and replace the steamapps folder with my backed up copy.

 

[hat]

So I'm gonna have to reconfigure them all then... I don't like cloud.

 

[wolf]

I don't like cloud.

yeah me neither, I don't even want to elaborate on why.

I just. dont. like. it.

 

[cadaveca]

Heh. I'd walk down the street naked, with my vital stats tatoo'd on my back, if it was legal.

I don't really care to much about privacy, so the cloud's conveinience works for me.

AS it is now, I can jump from one machine to the next in my house, for cloud-supported games, and never repeat anything. I used to use USB drives to transport save goames before, and now don't have to. I like that.

 

[Soylent Joe]

I really wish that it backed up your saved games too I've used the game backup a lot in the past, it's a nice feature.

 

[digibucc]

"STEAM CLOUD" should be taking care of save games and such for supported apps. Other apps have save files in "My Documents", usually.

for the most part. even before steam cloud, and for some current non steam cloud games - steam moves the saves or settings directory into "*\Steam\userdata"

Just Cause 2 for example is a game that does that. so in short the games will be all over the place

I have not found an easy method of getting all game data every time. but backing up the steam "steamapps, and userdata" folder, backing up "my documents" , "my games", "saved games" , "program data" and the hidden "appdata" folder seems to do the trick. appdata can get big though - so you are best off looking through it and only taking the subfolders for things you actually need. same goes for "program data"

more often than not - I just have to start games over

 

[Lionheart]

Wat does steam cloud even do?

 

[digibucc]

Wat does steam cloud even do?

for supported titles it saves settings online, as well as saved games for even fewer supported titles... as it gets bigger it will be much more useful...

 

[yami2ki]

If you use the steam backup feature thing, it compresses the files and saves them in a folder called "SteamBackups". If you just copy the entire steam folder it should copy the entire folder... and should be the same size after you move it/paste it.
Any 3rd party games or games that don't have Steam Cloud support, those save games and settings are saved somewhere else, usually in C:/Documents/My Games