Move Games To Another Drive Without Reinstall

Ever found yourself staring at that dreaded "low disk space" warning, especially on your primary drive where all your favorite games reside? It’s a common scenario: you’ve just downloaded a massive new title, only to realize your SSD is bursting at the seams. The thought of uninstalling and then painstakingly re-downloading gigabytes of game data just to shift it to another drive can feel like a monumental task. What if there was a way to free up space and reorganize your game library without the tedious process of re-downloading and reinstalling everything? This article will guide you through various effective methods to seamlessly move games to another drive without reinstall, saving you time, bandwidth, and a whole lot of frustration.

Why Move Your Games?

Relocating your game library isn’t just about clearing up space; it offers several practical benefits for PC gamers. Understanding these advantages can help you make informed decisions about your storage strategy.

Running Out of Space

Modern games are enormous, often consuming hundreds of gigabytes. Your primary drive, especially if it’s a smaller SSD, can quickly become full. Moving less-frequently played games to a larger, secondary drive frees up valuable space for new installations or critical system files. This prevents performance degradation that can occur when a drive is nearly full.

Performance Optimization

While SSDs offer incredible speed for game loading, you might have some titles that don’t benefit as much from being on the fastest drive. Conversely, moving a frequently played, load-time-intensive game from a slower HDD to a speedy SSD can drastically improve your gaming experience. Strategically moving games allows you to optimize performance where it matters most.

Better Organization

Keeping your operating system and essential applications on one drive and your entire game library on another can lead to a cleaner, more organized system. This separation makes it easier to manage backups, perform system cleanups, and even reinstall Windows without affecting your game files. A well-organized system generally runs more smoothly.

New Drive Installation

Upgrading your storage or adding a new drive is a perfect opportunity to reorganize your game library. Instead of a fresh installation for every game, you can simply transfer them to your new, larger, or faster drive. This ensures a smooth transition to your enhanced hardware setup.

Understanding the Challenges of Moving Games

While the idea of simply dragging and dropping game folders might seem appealing, it rarely works for PC games. Games are complex applications, and their installations often involve more than just the game files themselves.

Registry Entries

When a game is installed, it typically creates multiple entries in your Windows Registry. These entries tell your operating system and the game’s launcher where to find essential files, configuration settings, and more. A simple drag-and-drop move won’t update these registry paths, leading to "game not found" errors.

File Dependencies

Many games rely on specific DLLs, executables, and support files located in precise directories. Game launchers, like Steam or Epic Games, also expect games to be in specific library folders. Moving files manually can break these crucial links, preventing the game from launching correctly.

Game Launcher Specifics

Each major game launcher (Steam, Epic Games, Origin/EA App, Battle.net, Xbox App) manages its game installations differently. What works for one launcher might not work for another. Understanding each platform’s unique approach is key to successfully moving games without reinstalling them.

General Approaches to Move Games to Another Drive Without Reinstall

Fortunately, modern game launchers and third-party tools offer robust solutions for relocating your games. Here, we’ll explore the most common and effective methods to move games to another drive without reinstall.

Using Game Launcher Features

The most straightforward and recommended way to move games is by using the built-in features of your game launcher. These methods are designed to handle registry updates and file dependencies automatically, making the process much smoother.

Steam

Steam has an excellent built-in feature for managing game libraries across multiple drives. You can create new library folders on any drive and then easily move games between them. This is often the first method to try when you need to move games to another drive without reinstall for your Steam library.

• Setting up a New Steam Library Folder:
  1. Open Steam and go to Steam > Settings.
  2. Navigate to the Downloads tab.
  3. Click on Steam Library Folders.
  4. Click Add Library Folder and choose the new drive/location where you want to store games.
  5. Click Select and ensure the new folder is created.
• Moving Individual Games:
  1. In your Steam Library, right-click on the game you wish to move.
  2. Select Properties.
  3. Go to the Local Files tab.
  4. Click Move Install Folder....
  5. Select the desired Steam Library folder on your target drive from the dropdown menu.
  6. Click Move Folder. Steam will then transfer the game files and update all necessary paths.

Epic Games Launcher

While Epic Games Launcher doesn’t have a direct "move" button like Steam, you can still effectively move games to another drive without reinstall by leveraging its "Locate Existing Installation" feature. This process involves a bit of manual file handling but avoids a full re-download.

• Manual Move and Re-pointing:
  1. Close the Epic Games Launcher completely.
  2. Navigate to your current Epic Games installation folder (e.g., C:Program FilesEpic Games).
  3. Locate the folder of the game you want to move (e.g., Fortnite).
  4. Copy (do not cut) this entire game folder to your desired new location on the target drive (e.g., D:Epic GamesFortnite). This ensures you have a backup if anything goes wrong.
  5. Once the copy is complete, delete the original game folder from the old drive.
  6. Open the Epic Games Launcher.
  7. Go to your Library and click the Install button for the game you just moved.
  8. When prompted for the installation location, select the new path where you copied the game files (e.g., D:Epic Games).
  9. The launcher will then "discover" the existing files, verify them, and complete the installation process quickly without re-downloading.

Origin/EA App

The EA App (formerly Origin) offers a convenient built-in "Move Game" feature, making it relatively simple to move games to another drive without reinstall. This functionality streamlines the process, ensuring game integrity.

• Using the "Move Game" Feature:
  1. Open the EA App.
  2. Go to your Library and find the game you want to move.
  3. Click on the game title to open its details page.
  4. Click on the Manage button (or the three dots icon next to the Play button).
  5. Select Move Game.
  6. Choose the new destination folder on your target drive.
  7. Click Move. The EA App will handle the transfer and path updates automatically.

Battle.net

Battle.net also provides a user-friendly way to relocate games, similar to Epic Games’ "Locate" function. You can effectively move games to another drive without reinstall for titles like Call of Duty, World of Warcraft, or Overwatch.

• Locate the Game Feature:
  1. Close the Battle.net launcher.
  2. Manually copy the game folder from its original location to the desired new drive (e.g., copy C:Program Files (x86)Call of Duty Modern Warfare to D:GamesCall of Duty Modern Warfare).
  3. Delete the original game folder from the old drive.
  4. Open the Battle.net launcher.
  5. Select the game you moved from the left-hand menu.
  6. Below the Install or Play button, you’ll see a link that says Locate the game or Already installed? Locate the game. Click this link.
  7. Browse to the new location where you copied the game folder and select it.
  8. Battle.net will then scan the files and recognize the installation.

Xbox App / Microsoft Store Games

Moving games installed via the Xbox App or Microsoft Store is handled directly through Windows settings. This method is generally reliable for moving games to another drive without reinstall as long as the game supports it.

• Using Windows Settings:
  1. Go to Settings (Windows