I just installed Mint 22.3 after moving away from Windows and installed Steam. Before downloading any games, I'd like to set things up neatly instead of letting files end up somewhere confusing. I have a basic understanding of the Linux filesystem, but I'm not sure which locations are appropriate for game libraries or whether manually choosing a folder could cause problems.
I'm probably going to use a second SSD for games, and that drive is currently unmounted. Would I regret simply letting Steam choose its default location, or is there a straightforward setup that keeps the library easy to find without interfering with the rest of the system?
3 Answers
In Steam’s storage settings, add a library on the second SSD and let Steam manage the folders inside it. You can choose a simple path such as /mydata/steam or a clearly named folder on that drive. There’s no need to manually organize the individual game files; Steam expects to manage those itself.
Keeping games on a separate partition or drive is also useful because it keeps large game files separate from personal documents and configuration files, which can make backups easier. A single folder named Steam on that games partition is perfectly reasonable; Linux does not require a complicated folder structure for this.
A common setup is to mount the second SSD at a clear location such as /mydata, then create the Steam library at /mydata/steam. Once the drive is mounted properly and added through Steam’s settings, games can be installed and moved there normally.
That seems like the direction I needed. After formatting and mounting the drive, Steam reported roughly 47 GB of non-Steam data on it. Is that likely filesystem overhead or something else that should be investigated before installing games?
So the basic approach is to choose the second drive as the library location and let Steam handle everything below that folder, rather than creating all the game folders manually?