- Aug 29, 2014
- 32
- 0
- 4,590
Hey everyone,
I have an old laptop that I have to reinstall quite often. So far, I have about 41 games. Seeing how Steam is so easy to reinstall games after I wipe my drive, I still have so many games on DVD-ROM that take FOREVER to install.
I was wondering if I could install those games and then 7zip/RAR archive them for when I reinstall Windows later or buy a new computer altogether? I've done this with only a couple old games like Duke Nukem and Unreal Gold, but I've heard mixed results about whether this is possible for all of my games. I'm tired of holding onto all these DVD-ROMS. I wish I could upload them to steam and then dump those stinking discs.
I did manage to install Skyrim (steam version) with all 110 of my mods and simply erase the excess backups of all those 28GB of mods and that worked. I was able to simply drop an already installed Skyrim with mods into my Programs folder and that worked. Steam recognized it and all was well. That game alone I spend 2 hours reinstalling whenever I wipe my drive after update crashes and errors.
THE BIG QUESTION: Will I run into errors if I change my OS or use a new PC down the road? Some programs install into the registry, which is not possible if I only take the Programs folder, but those programs are more like Norton and other stuff. I can't say I see any games in my registry though. Hopefully a digital backup library will go for the win!
(PS I could back up the DVDs onto my HDD and then install them from the HDD which is at least 10x faster, but it is my hope to bypass the installation process altogether)
I have an old laptop that I have to reinstall quite often. So far, I have about 41 games. Seeing how Steam is so easy to reinstall games after I wipe my drive, I still have so many games on DVD-ROM that take FOREVER to install.
I was wondering if I could install those games and then 7zip/RAR archive them for when I reinstall Windows later or buy a new computer altogether? I've done this with only a couple old games like Duke Nukem and Unreal Gold, but I've heard mixed results about whether this is possible for all of my games. I'm tired of holding onto all these DVD-ROMS. I wish I could upload them to steam and then dump those stinking discs.
I did manage to install Skyrim (steam version) with all 110 of my mods and simply erase the excess backups of all those 28GB of mods and that worked. I was able to simply drop an already installed Skyrim with mods into my Programs folder and that worked. Steam recognized it and all was well. That game alone I spend 2 hours reinstalling whenever I wipe my drive after update crashes and errors.
THE BIG QUESTION: Will I run into errors if I change my OS or use a new PC down the road? Some programs install into the registry, which is not possible if I only take the Programs folder, but those programs are more like Norton and other stuff. I can't say I see any games in my registry though. Hopefully a digital backup library will go for the win!
(PS I could back up the DVDs onto my HDD and then install them from the HDD which is at least 10x faster, but it is my hope to bypass the installation process altogether)
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