Do I need to reinstall all of my steam games? [Solved]

[Zalinto]

I just made the switch from windows to mint 20 xfce and was wondering if the steam games on window's hhd work well with linux or if its better to just redownload everything. Also, is there any way to change the download path in mint from my ssd to hhd? Thanks.

[ugly]

Windows drives are formatted using NTFS. While you might have some success if you try to use Steam games installed on an NTFS drive, you will likely run into issues eventually.

The best option to avoid issues, is to install your Steam games on a Linux partition (ext4).

If you copy the data from the Steam games you have installed on your Windows hard drive to the location where you install games on your Linux drive, you might be able to avoid re-downloading. Steam usually checks for existing files and redownloads what is needed. But it can be inconsistent (even for games that use the Windows install files through Proton).

To change the download path for Steam in Linux is the same way you do it in Windows:

Open Steam, go to Settings and then 'Downloads'. Click on 'Steam Library Folders'. Then you can add a folder wherever you would like. You can right click on the different library locations to select a default library so new games will install to the location by default.

[Zalinto]

Thanks. now all i need to do is to find a way to get access to my hhd since it's stuck in read-only.

[ugly]

That's a problem caused by Windows 'fast boot' option. It makes Windows shut down in a way that doesn't properly close the drive in order to allow Windows to boot faster. This causes a dirty bit to be set on the drive, which makes it inaccessible.

What you need to do is boot Windows and turn off the fast boot feature. Then when you shut down Windows, the drive will be properly shut down.

[Zalinto]

thanks legend

[1000]

It may be useful if you will want have games on the second partition.
viewtopic.php?f=42&t=340774

I'm not sure, you can check.
Some games already installed should also work on Linux.
Before starting the game, Steam should download some updates / patch for Linux.

Edited.

... The best option to avoid issues, is to install your Steam games on a Linux partition (ext4). ...

Very good advice.

[diabolicbg]

I have a lot of old games like Fallout /1987/ and Fallout 2 /1988/ installed on the ntfs partition and they run fine on Linux if Wine is installed without reinstalling them on Linux.

Thanks. now all i need to do is to find a way to get access to my hhd since it's stuck in read-only.

If you use win7 start cmd as admin and write

Code: Select all

powercfg -h off

, next Enter.
If use win8-10 start cmd as admin and write

Code: Select all

powercfg /h off

, next Enter.
This is disable hibernation forever and you will have full access to files from Linux.