Having 2 steam/origin installs

[Syd]

So I read one guy on here recommending the above, one on a ssd with mission critical games and the other on a mechanical drive which has all legacy software and occasional games, what is the easiest way todo this, and would there be any issues or problems to look out for?.....

[kalniel]

I've seen the odd guide, however you might be better off waiting in the case of Steam, as they are adding the ability to manage data locations in a future patch soon.

[Syd]

Thanks Kal, I'll keep Steam on my mechanical drive. Btw, if you we're putting steam onto a new hd would you reinstall it from steam or copy the folder across ?

[dangel]

Google for "steamtool" - you can use the features of NTFS (junctions) to move games onto your SSD temporarily whilst playing them, and then back to mechanical when not. I've done this for some time now

Oh eck, here's a linky: http://www.stefanjones.ca/steam/

[kalniel]

Thanks Kal, I'll keep Steam on my mechanical drive. Btw, if you we're putting steam onto a new hd would you reinstall it from steam or copy the folder across ?

Depends on your download speed vs file copy speed. Copying the folder directly is a bit messy - you have to delete certain files and re-run the steam client installer if I remember correctly. Using the Steam backup feature is much cleaner, but takes a while to pack and then unpack.

I think the last time I did it I just downloaded games as and when I wanted to play them rather than faff about with the copying.

[dangel]

Depends on your download speed vs file copy speed. Copying the folder directly is a bit messy - you have to delete certain files and re-run the steam client installer if I remember correctly. Using the Steam backup feature is much cleaner, but takes a while to pack and then unpack.

I think the last time I did it I just downloaded games as and when I wanted to play them rather than faff about with the copying.

You don't need to do this - install steam to the same location and it just works. I have steam on another partition from my OS and all I do is install the client and choose that folder (on either 7 or 8) and everything works fine.

[drakioned]

I run a SSD + HDD for my Steam installation.

Using SteamMover to do this. I think it's probably fairly similar to the SteamTool that got mentioned earlier, just install on the SSD and move across older games/finished.

[IronWarrior]

I just have two Steam installations.

One has all my games installed, while the other installation only has a few and when needed, I delete and download whaever I want to play.