Most games are played through launchers, and those programs don’t always realize you’ve moved a game just because you copied the files to a new location.
Reasons to Move a Game Between Drives
Whatever your reasons, it’s possible to move games without having to re-download the files most of the time.
You are playing a game more often and want it on an SSD instead of an HDD to cut down the loading screen time. You’re planning to reformat a drive, but you don’t want to have to download the large game files again. You want to clear space on one drive by moving a game to another drive.
How to Move Game to Another Drive
Most launchers have a different method you should use to move games. Choose the launcher you’re using to play your game and follow those instructions.
Games Without a Launcher
If you have a game installed on your computer and don’t use a launcher, moving it is as easy as copying and pasting the game folder from one drive to another. Once the game is installed at that location, you can play it like normal.
Move Steam Game to Another Drive
It’s hard to imagine now, but Steam only allowed users to have one library folder in the past. There were multiple workarounds to install games on different drives – but those days are long over. Now Steam has a process for storing and moving games between multiple drives. You have to designate a library folder on the drive to which you’re transferring the game. Once you’re done, validate your files for the games you moved in case the process created any issues.
Move Epic Game to Another Drive
Epic also has a method it recommends using to move a game to another hard drive. It isn’t quite as straightforward as the method on Steam, but it should work for most users. Once that’s done, you should be able to launch the game and play from the same spot you left off at.
Move Origin Game to Another Drive
Like Steam, Origin has a Move option for the games installed in your library. When it’s done, you can right-click your game and select Repair to verify your files and be sure you’re ready to play.
Moving Games from Battle.net
Rather than moving the game in the launcher on Battle.net, you move the files to another location and let Blizzard know where they are. The one downside of moving files on Battle.net is that sometimes the patches don’t migrate and must be re-downloaded. Use the Scan and Repair option once the game is successfully recognized to ensure there aren’t any issues with the move. As long as everything comes back positive or fixed, you should be good to start playing.
GOG Galaxy Game to Another Drive
You can use the Import Folder function on GOG Galaxy to move a game between folders. You should delete the game at the old location and play it from the new one.
Uplay
Moving Uplay games works the same as some of the others. You move the game and let the launcher know where to find the files. It can take a while for Uplay to validate the files. Don’t try to use the game before it’s done.
Microsoft Store Games
Moving games downloaded via the Microsoft Store is handled through Apps and Features, not the Store itself. You should complete these steps on an account with administrator access on your computer. If you don’t see the Move option, you’ll have to uninstall and reinstall the game or do it through another launcher. Also, some people have run into trouble moving their Xbox-related games to external hard drives. If you try to launch it and it won’t run – but an icon with two arrows pointing in opposite directions is on the game image – then the drive you moved it to is too slow to run it.
Problems Copying Games
Sometimes games have issues with being copied to a new location. People report being unable to access, launch, or have games function correctly after moving, especially with options that don’t have an in-launcher movement process. If you find that you’re unable to play a game after copying it, you can try to move the installed location back to the original spot. You could also uninstall the game and reinstall it again. If the launcher doesn’t play a game in a new place, there aren’t many options to make it work beyond those.
