Hey everyone! Sorry if my English isn't great—it's my third language. I recently switched from Windows 10 to Zorin OS 18, and I'm having some issues. I have an external SSD filled with games I used to play on Steam. I thought connecting it would be straightforward, just plug it in, select it in Steam settings, and I would be good to go. But it hasn't been that simple!
I initially installed Steam using Flatpak, and then I realized I needed Flatseal to access the external SSD, but I noticed a yellow triangle indicating a problem, and it didn't work. After that, I tried installing the .deb version of Steam, but I still couldn't add the storage—my SSD didn't even show up. If anyone has a solution or can point me in the right direction, I'd really appreciate it! Sorry if I was unclear—happy to clarify any details in the comments.
5 Answers
Steam games generally perform better on a native file system like ext4 instead of NTFS, so that's definitely worth considering!
It's true—NTFS isn't the best for this setup because it doesn’t support Linux file permissions. You’ll want to format that drive to something like btrfs or ext4. The games can always be redownloaded from Steam, though, so don't worry too much about that part!
Keep in mind, sharing drives between Windows and Linux for games is often problematic. The file structures are quite different, making it tough to use the same drive for both systems. Just a heads-up!
Just a heads-up: when you ask technical questions, always mention your distro, hardware details, and any error messages you run into! It makes it easier for others to help you out!
You should know that Linux can access NTFS drives, but writing to them can be unstable, which might lead to data corruption. It's likely best to back up any saves you have on that Windows drive and consider formatting it to ext4, which is much better for Steam on Linux. You'll probably need to redownload your games, though.
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