question about reformatting

[liquidsoap89]

Alright so I'm going to be reformatting my computer soon, I've done it a million times so I don't have a question about what to do. But I have 2 hard drives, and normally I install windows on 1, and save all my music/movies and stuff to the other. The last time I reformatted I started saving all my games (most of which are from steam) onto the second hard drive. I guess this is most likely a question about the individual games, but do they install information to folders other than the steam directory and sometimes the documents folder (I'm using win 7)?

I normally copy the folders made in my documents folder to keep my game saves, but this will be the first time I won't have to reinstall the games... Will it work the way I'm thinking it should?

Thanks

 

[Bacon]

Assuming you can get Steam to recognize all the games again after reinstalling, I would THINK it is possible as I don't THINK games installed with steam make any registry changes. The registry is your only real enemy here, if any of the games needed to change the registry then you will need to reinstall said game if you're reformatting your OS drive.

In theory what you are saying COULD work, I know I've ported over game saves and settings from Steam games when I've reformatted, but I never tried keeping the game altogether.

Perhaps someone else will be able to confirm or discard what I've said, but thats my two cents.

 

[voyagerfan99]

I'd back up the games using the backup feature and then just restore them after you reinstall steam. With your way I think you'll run into issues.