I'm starting to grasp the whole Steam thing now

[kalniel]

haha yeah now looking back at it symbolic links/junctions may not have been the easiest way to manage my steam library considering how large it has grown

Is a dynamic volume sort of like raid? I've never used them before (though I have used raid and that was a bit of a pain to manage ).
How easy are they to set back up after a reinstall of Windows?
And what happens if one of your drives fails (would you lose partial data or all data on the dynamic volume - i.e. does it use data striping)?

I'm no expert, but it seems much simpler than hardware RAID, you just merge partitions/drives into one large volume and Windows gives it one drive letter (all within Windows disk manager). If you reinstall windows from a windows backup the dynamic volume is preserved, otherwise it should be completely tolerant of different of different volumes in the future, ie if you have 100GB of data I think it doesn't matter whether that's made up of 2x50GB partitions/drives or 3x33GB etc. and should just span across - changing size shouldn't be a problem either. I don't think you lose data from other partitions/drive if one fails.

The problem is they are relatively hard to undo (no problem to split into smaller dynamic volumes though).

[BlackDwarf]

I've bought games Zak, games I won't ever play. http://www.steamcalculator.com/id/dean_learner *bursts in to tears*

Tell me about it: http://www.steamcalculator.com/id/blackdwarf/uk

[Bagnaj97]

I've bought games Zak, games I won't ever play. http://www.steamcalculator.com/id/dean_learner *bursts in to tears*

Tell me about it: http://www.steamcalculator.com/id/blackdwarf/uk

Pfft, amateurs http://www.steamcalculator.com/id/bagnaj97/uk

I've not actually spent that much (Steam sales, Humble Bundles etc). I still wish I could get a refund of most of it though. I don't play many of them at all.

[Zak33]

my word.. how many games do you lot buy?

I'm shocked .... how on EARTH does anyone have enough time to play that many games.. let alone get any good at them?

[superlattice09]

I also only started Steam not very long ago.
It's convenient and I won't worry losing/damaging any game disc no more.

[Terbinator]

my word.. how many games do you lot buy?

I'm shocked .... how on EARTH does anyone have enough time to play that many games.. let alone get any good at them?

Lol no one plays games - we just buy them because they're cheap to then muse about our backlog.

[Ferral]

We just buy them to replace old disc copies even though we have completed those games in the first place and they will most likely never get played again for long periods of time. Not forgetting the whole Its in a Steam sale....Grab it!!!

My calculator is quite high :

http://www.steamcalculator.com/id/Ferral

I personally like variety in gaming, will play something loads without finishing it, move onto something else for a few weeks then go back to the origional title a few month later after jumping between games and finish it off.

Actually, looking at the prices on the calculator. It shows the current store price, not what you actually paid for it, so mine will probably be only half that amount!

[Bagnaj97]

Actually, looking at the prices on the calculator. It shows the current store price, not what you actually paid for it, so mine will probably be only half that amount!

Not even that, it shows the current non-sale price. If something's on a daily deal it'll still show as full price on the calculator. Only a true price drop is reflected in the calculator.

[directhex]

Pfft, amateurs http://www.steamcalculator.com/id/bagnaj97/uk

I've not actually spent that much (Steam sales, Humble Bundles etc). I still wish I could get a refund of most of it though. I don't play many of them at all.

Noez, I am defeated!

http://www.steamcalculator.com/id/directhex/uk

[Ferral]

Quick, everyone start gifting the daily deals to Hexeh so he can reclaim his crown!!!

[sam3]

Pfft, amateurs http://www.steamcalculator.com/id/bagnaj97/uk

I've not actually spent that much (Steam sales, Humble Bundles etc). I still wish I could get a refund of most of it though. I don't play many of them at all.

Wow I thought I had a lot of games
http://www.steamcalculator.com/id/sammy3/uk

and thanks for the information kalniel - I may look into setting one up in the future. It may be useful for my 4*500gb hard drives but I will still need to use junctions to put games on my ssd.

[Lee @ SCAN]

People who hate steam are generally the ones with the slower internet connections.

I've found there is a pattern and the faster the internet connection, the more love there is for steam

[Terbinator]

People who hate steam are generally the ones with the slower internet connections.

I've found there is a pattern and the faster the internet connection, the more love there is for steam

I feel sorry for those who have a sponge connection though and needed to download the Witcher 2 EE patch last night, all 11GB's of it.

[Ferral]

It took me all night to download the Witcher 2 EE patch (Started at around 10pm and was finishing about 9am this morning) only to find out that part 2 of it was goosed. Had to manually redownload that 300mb file.

My net speed is 2.8 upto a max of 3.1 mbps, still like Steam though. If I buy something new that is a top title like Deus Ex and Rage I managed to get it preloaded ready for the release day. Steam is a really good service, my net does annoy me at the best of times with the poor speed but its the old patience is a virtue and all good things come to those who wait!

[pipTheGeek]

I have mixed feelings for Steam. I like not needing discs to play games, but I'm not a fan of DRM in general and Steam is a pretty restrictive DRM. Especially not being able to sell a game once you have completed it, or if you decide you don't like it.

Its also a pain that it doesn't appear to play nice with windows profiles, saving Steam credentials doesn't seem to work so I have to keep logging back in to Steam.

[sam3]

My copy of Witcher 2 decided to download 11GB last night and another 14GB this morning?
Its all working good now and on a 33Mb connection it didn't take too much extra time

And another scary steam calculator for those who dare,
How much time have you spent playing steam games?

http://wastedonsteam.com/

1515.9 hours of playtime (63 days, 3 hours, and 54 minutes)