Topic: For STEAM Users -- Questions on how do you backup a game to DVD/CD

[MysterD]

Yeah, I'm thinking of moving some (Single-Player) STEAM Games I don't play much anymore entirely off my C: Drive -- updated as much as they are and all (August 2007) -- y'know, such as HL2, HL2: Lost Coast, HL2: Ep One, etc etc. These guys kinda' eat up a lot of space, altogether.

Though, I do want to try and use this back-up utility that is built right into STEAM, so I got a few questions before I start doing this any all.

So, anyone who had used the utility, can you provide more info please!

Okay, so you go and do FILE > BACKUP GAMES
Then pick your games to backup, then click Next.

For a path when doing this backup, it always has to be to your HD (Hard Drive), it seems.
(It won't accept me selecting my DVD-RW drive).
(But, if I select a spot on the HD, it gives me options of copying to disc).
So, is this backup save path for the HD basically for TEMPORARY STORAGE or PERMANENT purposes so it can the copy it there and then slide it then over to DVD/CD?
If so, will this backup stuff stay there on the HD after it copies to the DVD/CD?

Okay -- so, after it copies it to disc, then what?
After I do this, does it delete that backup right off my HD after it copies it all to DVD?
Or do I have to delete that manually off the HD afterwards?

Any more info y'all provide would help, guys.

[idolminds]

I would suggest not using the built in backup program. While it can do a great job compressing the files (I had HL2, EP1, CS:S, DoD:S, Lost Coast all on one DVD), what you end up with is a huge 4GB exe. When you go to reinstall it takes ages for the thing to load. And as for me, my Oct 06 backup was corrupted and I didn't even know it, so I had to go back to an 04 backup.

The easiest and best way to backup your files is to go into your Steam\steamapps directory and copy the files in there direct to a DVD/CD. Then when you want to install them, you just copy them back. No muss, no fuss. Blanks are so cheap now who cares if you need to burn two DVDs instead of just one, you know?

Also, with the backup utility, you cant install individual games. Its everything in the backup or nothing. So if you wanted to install HL2 and NOT Ep1...well, tough. With the direct DVD method, you can copy over only what you want.

[MysterD]

I would suggest not using the built in backup program. While it can do a great job compressing the files (I had HL2, EP1, CS:S, DoD:S, Lost Coast all on one DVD), what you end up with is a huge 4GB exe. When you go to reinstall it takes ages for the thing to load. And as for me, my Oct 06 backup was corrupted and I didn't even know it, so I had to go back to an 04 backup.

Any idea why it turned out corrupt???

The easiest and best way to backup your files is to go into your Steam\steamapps directory and copy the files in there direct to a DVD/CD. Then when you want to install them, you just copy them back. No muss, no fuss.

Okay, I won't need to back up anything other files or anything else except what say is within the Steam/steamapps/(user-name)/(game folder)?

Blanks are so cheap now who cares if you need to burn two DVDs instead of just one, you know?

This is true. I got plenty of blank DVD-R's.

Also, with the backup utility, you cant install individual games. Its everything in the backup or nothing. So if you wanted to install HL2 and NOT Ep1...well, tough.

Good to note.

So, if I do the STEAM Back-Up, I should make sure I back-up together all the stuff that I would likely re-install all together.

Hell, I could always put each game on their very own DVD, if I do use the STEAM back-up utility -- DVD-R's are that cheap, as you said earlier.

With the direct DVD method, you can copy over only what you want.

That works.

[idolminds]

What you want is the C:\program files\steam\steamapps folder. Everything with a .gcf extension is what you want to keep. While "half life 2 content.gcf" is obvious, don't forget "source materials.gcf" or you're looking at a 1GB download to get it back. Same with "source engine.gcf", which is the engine itself.

Pretty much if its a .gcf, put it on a disc.

The stuff thats in C:\program files\steam\steamapps\<username> I'm not sure how important they are. Nothing appeared very large. or important.

Now, non-Valve games have their stuff put in C:\program files\steam\steamapps\common. As an example, I have Geometry Wars installed. Instead of a .gcf file, its "geometry wars content.ncf" and it's only 10kb. Its simply a pointer file. All the Geometry Wars data is in C:\program files\steam\steamapps\common\geometry wars. Same with DEFCON and Red Orchestra. So if you have any non-Valve games on Steam you want to look for that.

[MysterD]

What you want is the C:\program files\steam\steamapps folder. Everything with a .gcf extension is what you want to keep. While "half life 2 content.gcf" is obvious, don't forget "source materials.gcf" or you're looking at a 1GB download to get it back. Same with "source engine.gcf", which is the engine itself.

Pretty much if its a .gcf, put it on a disc.

So, I looked at the size of all my GCF files -- 25 GB altogether.
Whoa!!!

So, I'm guessing -- are these the actual GAME files??

The stuff thats in C:\program files\steam\steamapps\<username> I'm not sure how important they are. Nothing appeared very large. or important.

So, I looked at that -- yuh, they're not huge at all, really.

Especially compared to the GCF files.

Now, non-Valve games have their stuff put in C:\program files\steam\steamapps\common. As an example, I have Geometry Wars installed. Instead of a .gcf file, its "geometry wars content.ncf" and it's only 10kb. Its simply a pointer file. All the Geometry Wars data is in C:\program files\steam\steamapps\common\geometry wars. Same with DEFCON and Red Orchestra. So if you have any non-Valve games on Steam you want to look for that.

I don't have a (rest of path)\steamapps\common folder.

The only STEAM games I got are All of the original HL Stuff, HL2, HL2 Ep One, Dark Messiah SP and MP, All the Sin Stuff, Sin Episode 1, etc.

[MysterD]

What you want is the C:\program files\steam\steamapps folder. Everything with a .gcf extension is what you want to keep. While "half life 2 content.gcf" is obvious, don't forget "source materials.gcf" or you're looking at a 1GB download to get it back. Same with "source engine.gcf", which is the engine itself.

Pretty much if its a .gcf, put it on a disc.

Thanks for the info, bro -- I do appreciate it!

I've been really lazy; I have yet to get around to backing-up GCF's and deleting some of my SP-games off STEAM, but I'll probably do it soon....
....Namely, any SP's I already finished -- such as Sin Episodes, Dark Messiah: SP, HL2, HL2: Ep One, Lost Coast, etc.

In a separate folder, I have like over 20 GB of back-up junk for Non-STEAM games -- patches, walkthroughs, wallpapers, etc etc. Recently, I been backing up some of that junk and ridding of some of those games I finished, to free up space.

STEAM GCF back-ups will be next!

Idol, would it be worth-while to take a GCF file and just compress into say some ZIP file or RAR file?
Would it be worth my while, so that I can hopefully put more games on one actual CD/DVD???
Or will it really not be worth it?

[idolminds]

I dont know, Ive never compressed them. You can try one and see how much smaller compressing it makes them and decide if its worth it.

[MysterD]

When I decide to uninstall/remove a STEAM-based game, should I do it through STEAM by "right-click" on a game then click "remove game?"

Or should I just delete the GCF file through Windows Explorer?

[idolminds]

Right click and remove game. Some games share assets from different archives (like the Valve games). So right click remove will remove just that game and not the assets that may still be needed by other titles.

[MysterD]

Right click and remove game. Some games share assets from different archives (like the Valve games). So right click remove will remove just that game and not the assets that may still be needed by other titles.

I just finished backing up all my Dark Messiah GCF's -- all 10 GB approximately, (uncompressed) taking up 3 DVD's.
So, the SP of Dark Messiah is gonna be gone for me!

You've been a great help w/ all of the info regarding STEAM, Idol.
I do appreciate ALL of your help w/ this matter.

[MysterD]

What you want is the C:\program files\steam\steamapps folder. Everything with a .gcf extension is what you want to keep. While "half life 2 content.gcf" is obvious, don't forget "source materials.gcf" or you're looking at a 1GB download to get it back. Same with "source engine.gcf", which is the engine itself.

Pretty much if its a .gcf, put it on a disc.

The stuff thats in C:\program files\steam\steamapps\<username> I'm not sure how important they are. Nothing appeared very large. or important.

Now, non-Valve games have their stuff put in C:\program files\steam\steamapps\common. As an example, I have Geometry Wars installed. Instead of a .gcf file, its "geometry wars content.ncf" and it's only 10kb. Its simply a pointer file. All the Geometry Wars data is in C:\program files\steam\steamapps\common\geometry wars. Same with DEFCON and Red Orchestra. So if you have any non-Valve games on Steam you want to look for that.

I just remembered we had this thread (so I did a search on it here), b/c I was looking for where Steam put BG&E -- since I'm pretty much done with it, I want to back it up now.

Ahhhh....so BG&E in the Common folder -- and so are all the Saved games right in that directory, too. Ahhh, and there's that NCF file in SteamApps folder for BG&E, too.

Cool.

If I don't say back-up BG&E Steam Edition on disc, say on a future PC I buy, I log-onto my Steam account, I could force re-download of all of BG&E assets from Steam (for no charge), correct?

EDIT:
Ah, hell. There's a BG&E file that is called sally_clean.bf, which takes up around 2.02 GB -- so, Nero won't  even allow for me to copy that file over (b/c it's over 2 GB) -- ummm...WTF? Is there anyway to override that limit within Nero?

I really don't wanna use the damn Steam utility to do the back-up.
If I use the Steam back-up utility, will it take my save files in the game's main directory with it, too?