Installing Steam games on external HDD... bad idea?
So I installed Steam + a few games onto a USB hard drive easily enough, and so far everything seems to work fine.
But I've read mixed opinions online, many say that it is a bad idea to do such a thing.
Most of the games I play are quite old (mainly Unreal Tournament games) so the speed at which my games run isn't an issue.
But is there a chance something could 'mess up' further down the line and I'll be back to square one?
Best Answer
I would seriously consider installing Steam itself onto an internal disk, and then creating a library folder on the external disk (and setting it as the default). This would avoid any weirdness by having the Steam app inaccessible when the external disk is not attached. Only the games on the disk become inaccessible when removed (which should be the bulk of the disk usage)
I have a tablet PC, which doesn't have enough storage on the local/internal 'disk' to be able to install (most) games on. Instead I have a steam library folder set up on a micro SD card, to which I install any games I play on it.
Sometimes I need to put a different SD card in there - the games on the SD card just become unavailable, but as soon as I put the steam one back in they appear as installed again.
This also happened when an SSD disk in my PC 'dissapeared' due to a BIOS glitch.
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Is it bad to install Steam games on external hard drive?
External hard drives are not recommended for use with Steam or Steam's games. Aside from many potential performance issues, external hard drives may connect or disconnect from the computer at inopportune times as part of their normal operations.Can I install Steam on a external hard drive?
No, it isn't bad. But it will be slower than to run it off an internal drive. The USB connection adds a tiny bit of extra delay and if it's USB 2.0 then it also forces the disk to run at lower than native transfer speeds. One option is to use an external SSD.Is playing on external hard drive bad?
There is no harm putting the Steam programs on your SSD. However, unless you have a massive SSD, your steam library should be on your HDD.How to Play Steam Games on External Hard Drive or SSD
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