How do I move Steam games to a new computer without re-downloading them?

I have just bought a new computer and I have everything migrated over except for my Steam games.

I looked in Program Files/Steam/ and I found a folder full of the games I have downloaded, but I do not know if it is safe to just copy these folders from one computer to another (seeing as a lot of other applications will not work if you do this), or is there another recommended way?

I don't really feel like re-downloading all my games. I don't have the time nor bandwidth to download 20GB over a 1.5mbps connection.

Is it possible to contact Valve and get a disk with the games on it?

Solution 1:

I copy the files like you suggested all the time, and it is fine to do. Any files that do not match are usually re-downloaded from Steam, hence why it will still update a bit after a fresh copy. If you do not want all to redownload just the sounds and maps (which take up the most of the space), you can simply take the .gcf files for each game from Program Files/Steam/SteamApps.

Steam also has a "Backup" feature you can use. The files it creates can be moved from PC to PC and restored on any one.

Solution 2:

Here is the official answer from Valve on how to relocate where Steam games are installed. While the article is written as if you're moving from one directory to another on the same computer, the principles would be alike for moving downloaded content from one computer to another:

https://support.steampowered.com/kb_article.php?ref=7418-YUBN-8129

Solution 3:

An unofficial one, is to copy just your complete steam folder to another PC/HDD, without the need to reinstall steam.

I made it many times, and it works also on external HDD, that is easy if you want to show some games to your friends when you don't have your PC with you.

Solution 4:

From this forum thread:

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.

Or re-download the games after installing Steam

Solution 5:

Download Steam mover from the techmixer site:

http://www.techmixer.com/steam-mover-move-installed-windows-applications-drives/

You can check the info first.

It was written by a Steam user and was first posted on the Valve developers forum.

It enables easy transfer between separate folders and/or hard drives, and is free, and portable.