SteamTool Library Manager 1.1

Released September 22, 2010

Introduction

Have you run out of space to install games within Steam? Want to install some of the games in your Steam Library to another hard drive or solid-state drive?

With SteamTool, you can install the games in your Steam Library across more than one hard drive. Games on the second hard drive will continue to play, download and update as normal, since Steam is still able to access them using their original folder names.

How to Get Started

Create an empty folder on the additional drive that will have games installed on it. Open SteamTool, and select the folder that you just created. SteamTool is now ready for you to transfer games. From now on, all you have to do is: Choose a game from the list and click 'Move to Storage' or 'Move to Steam'.





Important Warnings:

SteamTool makes use of NTFS Junctions. Steam will need to be installed on an NTFS partition for SteamTool to work. Some programs might display incorrect results when accessing your Steam folder, if they follow the same links that Steam uses to access games on the second drive. (i.e wrong number of files in a folder) You should read this guide explaining how to back up your Steam Library. No warranty is available in case of data loss, etc. Use at your own risk.

Downloads

SteamTool v1.1 (Report a Bug) Download Installer for Windows 7/8/Vista — 380 KB (What's new?) See the list of known issues for SteamTool at the bottom of this page.

Screenshots

More Once you create your storage folder and select it in SteamTool, your games will automatically show up, ready to move whenever you open the app. If you find that your games aren't showing, try running SteamTool as an Administrator

More Before any changes are made to the original game, SteamTool confirms that the game in storage is a complete copy of the original. If SteamTool is unable to finish moving your game (i.e. Steam is still using it), you'll still have a copy of your game, and SteamTool will offer suggestions for how to continue.



If you want to be sure, just close Steam before moving a game that Steam has recently used.

More SteamTool automatically detects a variety of issues with your games, and will show a 'Messages' button to warn you of potential problems.

More



After linking a game, you can 'Install' it within Steam, which will download any updates released since you last installed it.



If you see a "This game is not available" error, The 'Link to Steam' button will only appear if SteamTool detects that a game is not linked from the steam folder. This can be used to restore a previous installation of any game that was once in your 'steamapps' folder.After linking a game, you can 'Install' it within Steam, which will download any updates released since you last installed it.If you see a "This game is not available" error, Validating the Game Cache will probably solve it.

Known Issues

Valve is repackaging a number of their existing games to use a new content system. You can move games that have been converted to the new content system normally, but there are a few titles that have not been converted yet and won't show up in SteamTool.

normally, but there are a few titles that have not been converted yet and won't show up in SteamTool. Windows XP is not supported by SteamTool. Windows XP and earlier versions have incomplete support for junctions in Windows Explorer, making the process somewhat unsafe. For Windows XP users, I would suggest looking at the Link Shell Extension, which works around these problems.

is not supported by SteamTool. Windows XP and earlier versions have incomplete support for junctions in Windows Explorer, making the process somewhat unsafe. For Windows XP users, I would suggest looking at the Link Shell Extension, which works around these problems. User Account Control may require SteamTool to be run with administrative privileges to create links.

to create links. SteamTool has been tested to work with Windows 8 , but may require the installation of an extra Windows component (as detailed in this MSDN article).

, but may require the installation of an extra Windows component (as detailed in this MSDN article). As of November 2012, you can now install certain games to a second hard drive using the main Steam client!

Credits

SteamTool makes use of Jeff Brown's excellent .NET Junction Library, hosted over at CodeProject. This program was far easier to create thanks to his efforts.

Special thanks go out to everyone who provided suggestions for improvements to SteamTool.

Program icons are sourced from an free icon set by aha-soft.

This is a freely available personal project, and is not affiliated with, sponsored by, approved by, or otherwise related to Valve Software or Steam.

Version History