Steam is one of the most popular gaming platforms in the world, with a vast library of games that can be downloaded and played on your computer. However, with the increasing size of modern games, it can be challenging to find enough storage space on your computer to install them all. That’s where an external hard drive comes in. In this article, we will explain how to download Steam games to an external hard drive, step-by-step.
Step 1: Prepare Your External Hard Drive
Before you can download games to your external hard drive, you need to prepare it for use with Steam. Here’s what you need to do:
- Plug in your external hard drive and wait for it to be detected by your computer.
- Create a new folder on your external hard drive where you will store your Steam games. You can name it whatever you like, but it’s a good idea to make it easy to recognize.
- Open Steam and go to Settings > Downloads > Steam Library Folders.
- Click on “Add Library Folder” and navigate to the folder you just created on your external hard drive. Click “New Folder” to create it if it doesn’t exist.
- Click “OK” to save your new library folder.
Step 2: Choose Your Download Location
Now that you have added your external hard drive as a library folder, you need to choose where to download your games. Here’s how:
- Open Steam and go to Settings > Downloads.
- Under “Content Libraries,” you should see your external hard drive listed as a library folder. Click on it to select it.
- In the “Folder” section, you can choose where to download your games. By default, it will be set to the library folder you just created on your external hard drive. If you want to change it, click “Browse” and select a different folder on your external hard drive.
- Click “OK” to save your settings.
Step 3: Download Your Games
Now that you have set up your external hard drive and chosen your download location, you can start downloading games. Here’s how:
- Open Steam and go to the store page for the game you want to download.
- Click on the “Add to Cart” button and proceed through the checkout process.
- Once you have purchased the game, it will appear in your library.
- To download the game, simply click on it in your library and then click the “Install” button.
- Steam will now download and install the game to the location you specified earlier. If you have chosen your external hard drive as your download location, the game will be installed there.
- Once the game is installed, you can launch it from your Steam library and play it like any other game.
Tips and Tricks:
- To move an existing Steam game to your external hard drive, simply right-click on it in your library and select “Properties.” Click on the “Local Files” tab and then click “Move Install Folder.” Choose your external hard drive as the new location and click “Move Folder.”
- Be aware that some games may require certain files to be installed on your computer’s main hard drive. These files are usually small and won’t take up much space, but it’s worth checking the game’s system requirements before downloading to your external hard drive.
- If you have a slow internet connection, you can copy the game files from a friend’s computer or from a backup on another computer and paste them into your external hard drive’s Steam library folder. Steam will automatically detect the game files and you won’t have to download them again.
- If you plan to use your external hard drive with multiple computers, you will need to set up a new library folder on each computer and manually
