- Manually Transfer PC Games to an External Hard Drive
- Move Games to an External Hard Drive with PC Game Mover
Games often take a lot of space in your PC space. If you install too many games on your internal drive, you may easily receive a C drive full or not enough space waring. Using an external hard drive is a great way to have more storage space. Usually, there's an external hard drive for most gamers and common users. Gaming requires a lot of memory on your computer for games, and external HDDs take the pressure off your PCs. You can have all the gaming power without having to work on the inside of your computer. All you need to do is plug in the external hard drives, and move PC games to an external hard drive in two ways.
Method 1. Manually Transfer PC Games to an External Hard Drive
Oct 27, 2019 Hey! I just transferred a game from Steam for Windows to Steam for Mac just now. As the others said, the game must be supported in both Windows and Mac for it to work. You have two ways to go about this 1. Backing up the game from Steam on Window.
The most straightforward way to transfer PC games to an external hard drive is manually copying and paste the game. Before you are going to try this method, you must know that this method only works for a few programs - the portable programs. As there are a variety of games, manually copying to an external disk may miss the necessary components for some specific games. This method may not work as well for games installed without a manager like Steam or Origin, but for everything I tested, it worked like a charm. Here, I'd like to take Origin games for example.
Step 1. Open Windows Explorer and create a folder on the external hard drive where you'll store your games.
Step 2. Head to your current Origin folder and find the folder for the game you want to move. Copy it to the new location, and delete the old files.
Step 3. Open Origin and head to 'Origin > Application Settings > Installs & Saves'. Under 'Game Library Location', click the 'Change location' button and direct it to the folder on your new hard drive.
Close origin completely, even from the background. This only affects newly-installed games, so your current library will not be affected.
Step 4. Return to 'My Game Library' and click the 'Download' button to re-install the game.
Instead of re-downloading the game, Origin will detect the existing files there and make any necessary minor changes. When it's done, you should be able to play the game as usual.
Method 2. Move Games to an External Hard Drive with PC Game Mover
Compared with method 1, this method is much better. You don't need to manually copy and paste the games to change their location. You can easily make it by using professional game mover - EaseUS Todo PCTrans. This PC transfer software helps transfer your data, applications, and account settings from one PC to another in one click. Besides, the 'App Migration' option enables you to transfer an application from one drive to an external hard drive. What else can this tool do for you? Let's see.
- Transfer or back up data from one PC to another
- Transfer Windows accounts from one PC to another
- Transfer Steam to SSD, or move other games to another drive
- Free up C drive space, and clean up junk files
Download this software and directly launch this software to help you move games or apps from PC to an external hard drive.
Step 1. Connect your external hard drive to your computer. Open EaseUS Todo PCTrans and select 'App Migration > Start'.
Step 2. Find and choose the applications (marked as 'Yes') that you want to transfer. You can select multiple apps.
Click 'Browse' and select your external hard drive as the destination to store the apps.
Step 3. Then, click 'Transfer' to move your programs to an external hard drive
People Also Ask
In addition to game moving, most users are interested in the following questions:
1. Can I use an external hard drive for gaming?
Yes, you can. The best external hard drives are extremely easy to use. All you need to do is plug them in. Besides, an external hard drive can be a great way to install games on multiple computers. Generally speaking, no file formatting is needed to use an external hard drive for gaming.
2. Can I move other apps to an external hard drive?
EaseUS Todo PCTrans supports to move a lot of programs to an external hard drive, including Microsoft Office, Adobe, Google Chrome and more.
3. Is SSD or HDD better for gaming?
An SSD is much better for gaming than an HDD is. But SSD is not without fault. SSDs are not that good as long-term storage solutions, both because of their shorter life-span and because high-capacity SSD prices are bordering on ludicrous.
4. Can you run apps from external hard drive Mac?
Yes, Macs don't care where programs are launched from - there is no especially blessed location, so you can run them off an external drive.
Is it possible to move certain Steam games to an SSD
'I am running Windows 10 from a 1 TB Western Digital disk and have Steam installed on this HDD. Recently, I ran out of its space and bought a 128G Samsung 830 SSD. Now I'm thinking about adding the SSD to my PC and moving Steam games to SSD to get some improvement of the performance. For space limitation, I'd like to move a frequently played game, L4D2, the SSD, while keeping other games that are played less often on the HDD. However, I don't know how to move that single game to the SDD while keeping the rest on my old HDD. Is there any Steam game mover tool that can help to transfer Steam games without re-downloading?'
Like the case mentioned above, sometimes you may need to move Steam games to an SSD for certain reasons but have no idea about how to do it. When you are facing such a situation, don't worry! On this page, we would like to introduce you two ways to move Steam games to the SSD. Carry out the one best suited to your needs.
Move Steam games to the SSD by copying Steam games folder
Step 1. Go to 'Steam' > 'Settings' > 'Downloads' and click on 'Steam Library Folders'.
At the top and add the new location where you'd like to install the Steam games.
Step 2. Copy the game folder to your steam games folder on the SSD.
Step 3. In Steam, go to the game you just moved and right-click it and then delete local content.
Step 4. Go to that game again and install it, and when you're prompted to choose the install directory, select the SSD where you had copied the game.
Step 5. At this point, Steam will just do a check and verify the files are there and won't download anything.
Move Steam games to SSD with Steam game mover tool
If you feel the first way is too complex, you can try the second solution - move Steam games from HDD to SSD with a third-party Steam game mover tool. Here you can try EaseUS PC transfer software, a professional and user-friendly utility that can assist you to transfer Steam games to your SSD without reinstalling in a safe and easy way.
Step 1. Run EaseUS Todo PCTrans to start
Transfer Mac Files To Windows
Run EaseUS Todo PCTrans on your Windows 10/8.1/8/7 computer. Navigate to the 'App Migration' transfer mode and click 'Start'.
Step 2. Choose the games you want to transfer
On the left bar, you need to choose the drive where the games are installed. Next, find the games you want to transfer and tick the box. Since you're going to move the selected games to the SSD, click 'Browse' to set the SSD as the target location. Finally, click 'Transfer'.
Step 3. Initiate the transfer process
EaseUS Todo PCTrans will start immediately to migrate the games from one hard drive to the SSD. Wait for the process to complete.
What to do if Steam error happens
Transfer From Mac To Pc
If there is something wrong after the migration, you can follow the solutions below to fix it:
- Move the SteamApps folder from the Steam installation folder to your desktop.
- Uninstall Steam (this must be done to remove your old Steam installation settings from the Windows Registry).
- Reinstall Steam and copy your SteamApps folder back into the Steam installation directory
- Make sure that you have moved the SteamApps folder into the new Steam installation folder to copy all of your downloaded game content, settings, and saved games to the new location.
If a game has become corrupt, you can also have Steam automatically seek and swap damaged files by verifying the integrity of your local data:
Right-click on the broken game in your 'Steam library > Properties > Local Files > Verify integrity of game files'... Then, you can play your Steam games again.
Frequently asked questions
There are some freguently asked questions from the internet, You can get your answers here.
1. Should I put games on my SSD?
Yes, you should. SSDs (Solid-State Drives) perform much better than HDDs in many known aspects, like speed, reliability, and durability. SSDs use flash memory to deliver superior performance and durability. They deliver faster load times for games, applications, and movies. Because of the technology they use, SSDs are lighter and better able to withstand movement and drop page. Their advantages over HDDs are as follows:
- Faster reading and writing speed
- Better performance and reliability
- More energy-saving and less noise-making
- Stronger durability
As I have mentioned above, it is really a wise choice to put games on an SSD. For your operating system, application programs, and most-used files, you should upgrade to an SSD, as it offers dramatically improved speeds.
2. Can I move games from HDD to SSD?
Yes, you can. You can either <strong>move Steam games to SSD</strong> with the help of a software or manually changing the games folder. Most people are looking for ways to transfer Steam to another drive.
Transfer Steam Games From Mac To Windows 6
3. How do I move Windows 10 to SSD?
Transfer Steam Games From Mac To Windows 7
Users can install Windows 10 to an SSD without reinstalling Windows by cloning the system drive with the help of disk imaging software. Also read - how to migrate Windows 10 from HDD to SSD.