Transfering steam games between computers

Im getting my first laptop today dv5, 2.2 ghz, 2 gb RAM and a 9600 GT!!

I was just wondering how i can transfer my steam games over to it, do i just copy the folders located in my C:, programfiles, steam, steamapps, <username> to the one in the laptop? Thanks.

 

You have to download the Steam software and then re-download your games.

 

You could just use the backup feature in steam. Install steam on your laptop, then use the backup.

 

No you don't. Install Steam, then just copy the directories over onto the new computer, use the same filepaths etc...

And you will need to delete the clientregistry.blob file that you copied over from your old computer. Don't worry Steam will create a new one when you run it on your new computer.

 

so all of the folders in the Steam folder in Program files?

 

if you don't mind not having any saved games, just install steam, and reinstall the games

 

I cant reisntall the games if i dont have the files, how do i get the files onto my laptop?

 

Either follow Thund3rball's method or mine. Either should work. If you're asking how, then use an external HDD.

 

yes. yuppers. you got it.

 

yes you can you can redownload them off of steam for free and install it on your computer. that's the point of steam

 

And the point of the OP that some of the thick headed posts in this thread are not getting is that he may not want to re-download 26 GB (What my Steam folder is) of files when he can put them on an external drive or DVD and copy them over.

If you copy over just the SteamApps folder you should be fine reinstalling Steam and letting it find the files.

 

geez download 26 GB. I think I would die and my kids would have kids before that happened on this crummy internet connection.

 

>.> I don't get what all the confusion is about. Theres a backup option built into steam. Just right click your games and select backup files.

 

I have 90 GB of games installed at the moment overall.

 

he said he Couldn't reinstall if he he didn't have the files but you can if you don't ars

 

And with the files that i backed up, do i just copy that into the steam apps folder on the laptop?

 

You can, but using the steam built in backup includes a install function. So when your ready to install them you just run the install program and they in get reinstalled.

 

If you just copy your folder go into your registry and change the path here:

HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT/steam/Shell/Open/Command

Change the path as appropriate.

 

Yes this might be a good idea for single-player games, but I have heard this method can be finicky with online-multiplayer games, such as cod4,etc. If I were you try the back-up option, or redownload some of them at a time, as in, when you are ready to play them, download them, most games take me less than an hour, some less than 30 minutes, though cod:waw took 2 hours or so.

 

You could always right-click the game, back it up to a thumb drive or external-HDD, but it takes about 30 - 40 minutes to backup and reinstall it. I usually don't bother with that option because I can download and install it quicker.

 

Ok thanks guys, ill think ill use steams back up option. Ive only got less than 4 GB of downloads left for this month so i have to use it sparingly!!

 

Well, the simpler option would just be to go into program files, and just send the entire Steam folder to the other PC, you can put it on the desktop of the new PC if you want, it'll still load up, and run all of your games. Just click the steam.exe inside the steam folder and all of your games will load up.

I don't really see the point of going through all these other methods when just copying the entire steam folder works just fine, and it's much simpler.

 

I agree with Unknown. I've had all my Steam games on an external HD for a few years now and have switched comps multiple times. It still works great and no reinstalls.

 

Save your bandwidth, just copy the folder.