Steam Will I Lose My Data if I Setup Again
You never know when a difficult bulldoze failure or accidental format might erase all your difficult-earned progress. Hither's how to support your Steam (and other) PC games in instance of information loss.
How to Back Up Your Game Saves
A game's files can (almost) always be re-downloaded, just your game saves are irreplaceable. Without backups, there'southward no way to restore a garage full of GTA 5 cars you spent hours acquiring and tricking out—short of starting over from scratch. Thankfully, save files don't accept upwardly much space, so they're easy to support.
By default, Steam—and other game clients, similar Origin—can support your settings, saves, and other data to their own respective cloud services. These settings should be enabled by default, but you can double cheque in the following locations:
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In Steam, head to Steam > Settings > Cloud > Enable Steam Deject Synchronization for Applications Which Support It, and make sure it'due south checked. Yous can as well right-click any game, choose Properties, and ensure the Cloud Synchronization box is checked under the Updates tab.
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In the Epic Games Shop, click Settings and check Enable Cloud Saves.
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In Origin, hover over your profile motion-picture show and head to Application Settings > Installs & Saves and toggle Saves on under Deject Storage.
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In GOG Galaxy, go to Settings > Game Features and check Cloud Saves.
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In Uplay, navigate to Settings > Full general and check Enable Cloud Save Synchronization for Supported Games.
Annotation that not all games will necessarily use their client'southward built-in cloud service—so if a game'southward progress is important to yous, yous may demand to do a flake of actress research to meet if it backs upward automatically. If yous want to back up those saves yourself—or if yous just want an actress backup in addition to the client's integrated cloud storage—you'll demand to find out where that specific game stores its save files.
Games that employ Steam's cloud saves may store these files nether C:\Programme Files (x86)\Steam\Userdata. You may also notice some games store their relieve files in your Documents binder—look for a folder with the game's name, the publisher's name, or within the "My Games" binder. Other titles may bury saves in your user's %APPDATA% folder. You may have to Google the game in question to confirm where its salvage files are stored.
Once you know where all your salvage files are, just copy those folders to your backup drive for safe keeping. Ideally, you should use a backup tool that does this regularly and automatically, whether information technology's Windows' built-in File History or a dedicated cloud backup service. As long as you include those game-salvage folders in the backup aslope your other personal files, you'll always have them handy—and you can restore them to their original location on a new drive to pick up where you left off.
How to Back Upwardly and Restore an Entire Game
If you have a decent net connection, backing upwardly your game saves may be enough—after all, if y'all desire to return to a game later, you lot tin just re-download it from Steam. Simply if your internet connectedness is slow, backing up all the game'south files to another drive allows you to re-install it much faster in the hereafter.
It'south as well useful if you have a bunch of mods installed that took ages to tweak just right (my beau Dovahkiin know what I'm talking virtually). You'll need more space on your backup drive than you would for save files, but hey—storage has gotten pretty affordable. There are two ways to dorsum up your game files:
To move a game to some other bulldoze but keep it playable, caput to Steam > Settings > Downloads > Steam Library Folders and click Add Library Binder. Past creating a new Steam library on your secondary drive, you can right-click any game, head to the Local Files tab, and move information technology to the new library on that drive. For more info, and for instructions in other game clients, see our guide on moving PC games to another hard bulldoze.
If yous want to back upward the game files but don't demand them to exist playable—you just want them set up to re-install in the future—navigate to the game's installation folder. For Steam games, that'll be C:\Programme Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\common in a folder with the game'south name. Drag those folders to your backup drive—or include them in your automated File History backup—and so uninstall them from Steam (if desired). For games in other clients, echo this procedure with their own installation folders.
When you want to play the game over again in the time to come, just restore that folder to the aforementioned location and click the game's Install button in Steam. Instead of downloading them, it'll see the files and verify their integrity so you lot can get playing quickly.
Alternatively, if you lot have the space, y'all could but keep your entire C:\Plan Files (x86)\Steam folder backed up with the rest of your personal data, ensuring nothing ever gets lost. If you have any mods installed, though, be certain to dorsum those up equally well—third-party tools similar Nexus Mod Manager may have their own backup methods, so be certain to read up on the game and mods in question. You don't want to offset from cypher the next time y'all're feeling nostalgic for Minecraft.
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Source: https://www.pcmag.com/how-to/how-to-back-up-and-restore-pc-games
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