How to Move Steam Games to Another Drive Without Reinstalling

Your main drive is nearly full and your Steam library is the main culprit. Deleting games to claw back space, only to re-download 80 GB later, is a waste of time and bandwidth — and it is completely unnecessary. Steam can move installed games to another drive without reinstalling, using tools built right into the client.

This guide shows you all three methods: moving several games at once with the Storage Manager, moving one game from its Properties page, and relocating the whole steamapps folder by hand. It also covers what can break when you move things, which drive formats work, and how to fix the most common problems.

Before you move anything: check free space and drive format

Steam will not move a game to a drive that cannot hold it, so start by checking that the destination has more free space than the game needs — ideally with a few gigabytes to spare for updates. You can see a game's install size on its Steam library page, and you can see each drive's free space under Steam > Settings > Storage. Moving a game creates a full copy before deleting the original, so a drive that is only just big enough can still fail.

Make sure the game is closed and Steam is not downloading anything while the move runs. Steam Cloud protects most of your saves, but it costs nothing to back up your game saves first — especially for older titles with no cloud support.

Method 1: Move games in bulk with the Steam Storage Manager

The Storage Manager is the fastest option when you want to shift several games at once. Open Steam, go to Steam > Settings > Storage, and you will see a drop-down listing your drives and how much space each Steam library folder is using.

1. Click the + button next to the drive drop-down to add a library folder on the new drive. Select the drive, create a folder if you want one, and click Add.
2. Back in the Storage Manager, tick the checkbox next to every game you want to move.
3. Click the Move button, choose the new library folder from the list, and confirm. Steam copies the games, verifies them, then removes the originals.

This is the safest method because Steam handles the copying, updates its own records, and checks that everything arrived intact. You can keep playing other games while the move runs in the background.

Method 2: Move a single game from its Properties page

If you only need to move one game, the per-game option is quicker:

1. Right-click the game in your Steam library and choose Properties.
2. Open the Installed Files tab.
3. Click Move install folder…, pick the library folder on the new drive, and click Move.

Steam moves the game and its Workshop content, updates its records, and the game launches normally from the new location. If the Move install folder… button is missing, the game may be mid-update — or you have not created a second library folder yet. Add one first using Method 1.

Method 3: Move the whole SteamApps library folder manually

If Steam's own tools are not cooperating, or you want to relocate an entire library in one go, you can move the steamapps folder yourself. Close Steam completely first, then:

1. Cut — do not copy — the steamapps folder from the old library location and paste it into a library folder on the destination drive.
2. Open Steam and go to Steam > Settings > Storage. Use the + button to add the new location as a library folder.
3. Steam detects the games already present. Right-click each moved game, open Properties > Installed Files, and run Verify integrity of game files to confirm nothing was corrupted in transit.

This works because Steam identifies games by the manifest files (appmanifest_*.acf) inside steamapps. As long as the manifests move with the game folders, Steam recognises everything. Never move games while Steam is running, and never move only part of a game's folder — a half-moved game will fail verification and force a re-download.

What breaks when you move Steam games — and how to fix it

Steam's built-in moves are clean, but manual moves can leave a few things pointing at the old location:

• Desktop shortcuts. Shortcuts created by Steam use steam:// links, so they usually keep working. Shortcuts for non-Steam games store the old file path — delete and re-create them.
• Non-Steam games. Games added with Add a Non-Steam Game remember their install path. After a manual move, update the target in Properties or remove and re-add them.
• Mods and Workshop content. Workshop items live in steamapps/workshop and move with the folder, but mods installed by third-party managers with hard-coded paths may need their paths updated.
• Games with components outside Steam. A few titles install redistributables or write registry entries on first launch. If a moved game crashes, verify the integrity of the game files — Steam will repair the missing pieces.

NTFS vs exFAT vs FAT32: pick the right drive format

For a Steam library on Windows, format the destination drive as NTFS. It supports huge files, long paths, and the file permissions some games rely on. exFAT works in a pinch — most games run fine from it — but it lacks journaling and proper permissions, so a power cut is more likely to corrupt the library. FAT32 is unsuitable: its 4 GB per-file limit breaks almost every modern game. Check a drive's format by right-clicking it in File Explorer and choosing Properties.

Troubleshooting

Most moves go smoothly, but these are the problems people hit most often:

FAQ

Do I need to reinstall after moving? No — that is the whole point. Steam updates its records and the game launches from the new drive as normal.

Can I move games to an external hard drive? Yes. Performance depends on the connection: USB 3.0 or faster is fine for most games, but very demanding titles are happier on an internal SSD.

Will my saves move too? Usually there is nothing to move — saves live in your Documents folder, AppData, or Steam Cloud, not in steamapps. They stay exactly where they were.

Can I play a game while it is being moved? You can keep using Steam for other games, but leave the game being moved alone until Steam finishes. Moving files while a running game is reading them is asking for corruption.