Whether you have a new drive or want to clear up some space on an old one, moving a game between drives offers a lot of utility. However, it isn’t always as easy as dragging and dropping files.
Most games are played through launchers, and those programs don’t always realize you’ve moved a game just because you copied the files to a new location.
Reasons to Move a Game Between Drives
There are a few reasons you might want to consider moving your games to a different drive.
Whatever your reasons, it’s possible to move games without having to re-download the files most of the time.
How to Move Game to Another Drive
Most launchers have a different method you should use to move games. Choose the launcher you’re using to play your game and follow those instructions.
Games Without a Launcher
If you have a game installed on your computer and don’t use a launcher, moving it is as easy as copying and pasting the game folder from one drive to another.
Once the game is installed at that location, you may play it like normal.
Move Steam Game to Another Drive
It’s hard to imagine now, but Steam only allowed users to have one library folder in the past. There were multiple workarounds to install games on different drives – but those days are long over.
Now Steam has a process for storing and moving games between multiple drives. You have to designate a library folder on the drive to which you’re transferring the game.
Once you’re done, validate your files for the games you moved in case the process created any issues.