how to load steam games from external hard drive

Gaming enthusiasts typically require a lot of storage space for their games collection. External hard drives offer a practical solution for augmenting your storage space and running your games from them. If you are a fan of Steam games and want to run them from an external hard drive, you can use the following guide to learn how to do it.

Step 1: Choose the Right External Hard Drive

Your first step should be to choose an external hard drive that suits your gaming needs. Look for models that offer fast read and write speeds to ensure optimal performance. Also, take into consideration the size of the drive and whether it offers enough space for all your favorite Steam games.

Step 2: Format the External Hard Drive

Before you can use your external hard drive as a Steam game library, you must format it appropriately. To do this, connect your drive to your computer, launch Disk Utility, and select the drive. Then, format the hard drive to the ExFAT file format. This format is compatible with both Windows and macOS, thus making it easy to transfer your games between different systems.

Step 3: Move the Steam Folder

Once you have formatted the external hard drive, copy your existing Steam folder from your computer to the external drive. To do this, locate the Steam folder on your computer and drag it to the external drive. It may take some time to transfer all the game files, so patience is essential.

Step 4: Install Steam on the External Hard Drive

Next, install the Steam client on the external hard drive. To do this, launch the Steam client installer and select the external hard drive as the installation location. Once the installation is complete, sign in to your Steam account and verify that your game library is available on the external hard drive.

Step 5: Run Steam Games from the External Hard Drive

Finally, you can start running your Steam games from the external hard drive. Launch Steam from the external drive and select the game you wish to play. The game will be loaded from the external hard drive, and you can enjoy gaming without worrying about running out of storage space on your computer.

Conclusion

Running Steam games from an external hard drive is an excellent way to expand your gaming storage capacity without having to upgrade your computer. Follow the steps outlined above, and you will be able to enjoy your favorite games seamlessly from your external hard drive. Remember to choose a high-quality external hard drive, format it appropriately, move the Steam folder, and install Steam client on the external drive, and you are good to go.