SSDs have gotten bigger, but so have games—Call of Duty: Modern Warfare now clocks in at over 200GB, which doesn’t leave room for much else on a modestly sized disk. If you’re willing to give up some of those super-fast loading times, you can move some of your games to a secondary hard drive with more space without re-downloading them.
Some game clients, like Steam and EA’s Origin, have built-in features that allow you to move your games from one location to another. Others, like the Epic Games Store, require a little finesse to move a game’s files. Here’s how to do it on the most popular launchers.
Steam: Add a New Library Folder
There’s a good chance most of your digital collection resides in Steam, which thankfully makes it easy to move your games. From the main window, head to Steam > Settings in the upper-left corner and go to the Downloads tab in the sidebar. Click the button along the top labeled Steam Library Folders, then click Add Library Folder—you can choose any other folder on your system to use as a secondary install location.
From now on, when you go to install a new game, you’ll be given a choice between your pre-selected library folders. I put the games I’m currently playing on my SSD, with the games I occasionally re-visit on my slower, spinning hard disk.
To move a game you currently have installed, right-click its name in Steam’s library sidebar, then head to the Local Files tab. Click the Move Install Folder button, and Steam will give you a drop-down with all your pre-chosen library folders. Select the one you want to move the game to, then click the Move Folder button.
This may take a bit of time if the game’s files take up a lot of space, but when it’s done, Steam will launch the game normally without a hiccup. Note that you may need to do a bit of extra work if you have custom mods installed, but for most titles, it’s that easy. Check out our list of the best Steam tips for more.
GOG Galaxy: Move the Folder and Reinstall
GOG Galaxy aims to be a one-stop shop for all your game libraries, but it also allows you to download and install games from GOG.com. It doesn’t offer a built-in button to move those games to a new folder, but it does allow you to install games wherever you want—when you install a new game, you can choose to install it in a folder other than the default. And we can manipulate this feature to move games to a new location.
To move a game, navigate to GOG Galaxy’s installation folder—the default is C:\Program Files (x86)\GOG Galaxy\Games—then right-click on the folder containing the game in question. Cut and paste that folder to your new location—say, D:\Games\GOG—and wait for the files to copy over.
When that’s done, open GOG Galaxy, right-click on the game, and choose Manage Installation > Uninstall. You’ll get an error telling you it couldn’t uninstall the game, but that’s okay. Click on the game again to install it, and when it asks you where you want it installed, choose the folder where you copied the game files (in our example, D:\Games\GOG). It will begin installing the game, realize the files are already there, and the installation will complete very quickly, without re-downloading the files a second time.
EA Origin: Move the Game From the Origin Client
Origin has a built-in "Move" button that makes this process dead simple—even simpler than Steam, since you don’t have to create a new "library folder" first. When you install a new game, you can install it in any folder you want, on any drive.
To move an Origin game to a new folder, just right-click the game in Origin’s Library view, choose Move Game, and browse to your new drive. You’ll see the progress in a File Explorer pop-up, and when it’s done you’ll be able to play the game like nothing was different. (Well, except for the loading times.)
Blizzard Battle.net: Move the Files, Then Redirect the Launcher
For games using Blizzard’s Battle.net launcher, like Overwatch, you’ll need to move the files yourself, then direct Battle.net to the new location. So head to your Battle.net games directory and select the folder for the game you want to move.
Cut and paste this folder to your desired location on the new drive, then open Battle.net and click the Blizzard menu in the upper-left corner to enter the Settings. Under the Game Install/Update tab, find the game in question and click the Use a Different Folder button.
Navigate to where you moved the files on your new drive, and you should be good to go. Battle.net will verify the integrity of the files, and you’ll be able to play the game from its new location without re-downloading it.
Epic Games: Trick the Store Into Resuming a Finished Download
The Epic Games launcher is one of the more annoying stores with which to move games. First, find the folder where your game of choice is currently installed (like C:\Program Files\Epic Games\Fortnite) and move that folder to the new location (like D:\Games\Epic\Fortnite). Then change the name of the folder—something like "Fortnite1" would be fine in this case.
Open the Epic Games store, click the three dots under the game in question, and choose Uninstall. The game should "uninstall" immediately, since the files are no longer there. Click the game to start the installation process again—only this time, choose your desired location on the new drive (like D:\Games\Epic\Fortnite without the "1" you added). Epic won’t install a game to an existing folder, which is why we have to go through this renaming song and dance.
Once the installation starts, click the Downloads tab in the Epic launcher’s sidebar, and click the X to cancel the installation. Now go back to the folder where the game’s files reside on your new drive and delete the new folder—in this case, "Fortnite"—and rename the "Fortnite1" folder to "Fortnite."
Go back to the Epic launcher and click on the game in question to resume the download. It should see your files on the drive, verify that they’re all there, and finish installing the game without downloading anything.
Microsoft Store: Move Games From Windows’ Settings
For all the hate Microsoft’s Universal Windows Platform (UWP) games have gotten in the past, they’re very easy to move to a new drive or folder. To do so, head to Windows 10’s Settings > Apps > Apps & Features, then find the game in the add/remove programs list. Next to the Uninstall button, you’ll see a Move button that allows you to move it to any drive—not any folder, mind you, but at least you can get it off your SSD and onto another drive where space isn’t quite so precious.
Ubisoft Uplay: Move the Files, Then Redirect the Launcher
Ubisoft’s Uplay is similar to Battle.net: to move a game, you have to move the actual files using File Explorer. So find the game directory in question (by default, it’ll be under C:\Program Files (x86)\Ubisoft\Ubisoft Game Launcher\games) and copy it to your new drive. Delete the folder from its old location.
Open Uplay, then right-click the game in question and choose Uninstall. Once Uplay marks the game as uninstalled, right-click the game and choose View Game Details. You should see a new button appear under Download titled Locate Installed Game. Click that, direct the launcher to your game’s new location, and it should detect all the game's files, allowing you to play without re-downloading.
No Other Options Exist? Create a Symbolic Link
Most launchers should allow a process similar to the above if you want to move your games. If it doesn’t, there’s one last-ditch option you can try: symbolic links. Symbolic links are kind of like shortcuts, except your computer will treat the shortcut as if it’s the actual folder it’s pointing to, so the game files won’t know the difference.
I've yet to encounter a modern game that requires this, but it's how we used to do things before Steam added the ability to have multiple library folders. It may come in handy in certain situations.
Let's say we’re moving a game from C:\Program Files\MyAwesomeGame to D:\Games\MyAwesomeGame. Just move the MyAwesomeGame folder, then right-click the Start menu and choose Command Prompt (Admin). Run the following command:
mklink /D "C:\Program Files\MyAwesomeGame" "D:\Games\MyAwesomeGame"
You’ll see a shortcut-looking icon appear in the original folder, pointing to the new location. The game won’t even be able to tell the difference, meaning it should hopefully launch without trouble—and you can reclaim that much-needed space on your SSD.
Further Reading
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The Link LonkSeptember 28, 2020 at 07:02PM
https://www.pcmag.com/how-to/how-to-move-pc-games-to-a-different-hard-drive
How to Move PC Games to a Different Hard Drive - PCMag
https://news.google.com/search?q=hard&hl=en-US&gl=US&ceid=US:en
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