Steam back ups

[Zadock]

Evening folks,

Quick question, one that i can't seem to find a definitive answer for (or at least a clear answer for) online.

When you create aSteam back up file, is it tied specifically to one account? The reason I ask this is because a mate has bought a game on steam and has a rather slow connection, I also own this game. Could he use my back up file of this game to install it? i.e. would it acknowledge his ownership and allow him access?

[matty-hodgson]

Yeah, it works. I'm fairly sure people at the LAN use this method for people who want to buy a game but don't want to download a 10GB file.

Edit: In fact, I'm fairly sure Steam detects the file on the network and downloads it from the other persons computer actually...

[GoNz0]

in theory it will work, run a file integrity check after and it will clean up any issues before it loads the 1st time.

as you can backup the steamapps folder and just pop it into a fresh steam install you have nothing to lose trying.

[Zadock]

Cheers guys, just what I needed to know. Much appreciated.

Will give it a try and see what happens.

[razer121]

Although your trying it, ive done it and it does work.

[jim]

Yeah it works fine

[Lord Midas]

I've used a copy of my Steam folder, which is stored on a different HDD in my PC, for years.
Yes, you could copy the game from someone elses PC, and run it fine. It's because you have paid for it and have a licence. The games files will be the same regardless.

[LuckyNV]

Personally never used the back up facility, I just copy the entire Valve/Steam folder some place safe.

Then just copy it back and create your own steam.exe shortcut, no need to reinstall anything as such

This does mean if you have a games partition that you keep intact, reinstall your OS, you only need to create a shortcut to access steam.exe and all your games are already there.

You need to to keep in mind that some non-valve games store files in the My Documents/My Games folder on the root/OS partition.

but otherwise the actual large game content will be in the Valve/Steam folder and available to any account logged into that machine (as long as they have the game in their account obviously)

Within the Steam folder will be a folder named as your username, this only stores custom content for that login for that game, for example TF2 will contain the maps, in-game configs, sprays etc...

This means it is possible to just rename that folder when you switch accounts, and that account will have access to the maps so no need to redownload.

You have to be careful with Steam Cloud though, it will download the settings from Valve and over-ride configs.