I'm planning to switch from Windows 10 to Linux Mint and I'm trying to figure out how to keep my existing Steam games. I currently have around 500GB on my primary M.2 drive and 2TB on my secondary drive, so I have some space to work with. Is there a way to transfer my games without having to redownload everything? Any tips on the best way to do this would be greatly appreciated! Thanks!
2 Answers
You should check the standard Steam game folder, which is usually located at `C:Program Files (x86)Steamsteamappscommon`. Copy that entire folder to an external drive before installing Mint. After you've set up Linux and installed Steam, download a small game to create the necessary folder structure, then replace that folder with the one you copied. Steam will just need to validate the games and you won’t have to redownload all of them!
Don’t forget that Steam has a backup and restore feature too! You can copy your game data to an NTFS partition that Linux can read, then add that library location in Steam on Mint. This way, you can transfer your games without losing progress. Just make sure to keep NTFS reads/writes in mind, as it can be less efficient.
That’s a good point! I’ve heard NTFS can be quirky with Steam on Linux; maybe using its built-in tools can help avoid issues.