I'd rather hoped I'd find the response to this on Steam but I'll ask here and see if anyone knows or wants to hazard a guess (it's a variation on an often asked question about Steam Libraries on different drives.) I bought a laptop - from Amazon. The laptop came with 1 256gb SSD. When I received the laptop I added another 256gb SSD into the bay as was provided for. The PC has now developed a graphics issue. I called Amazon who quickly suggested sending me a like replacement and me returning the old one, no charge all shipping paid - important as I am overseas. When I set up the PC I put the basic Steam program on the C: drive. I created the Steam library for TS2018 on the new added drive. Yes - I am expecting to buy a lot of content! All of this worked wonderfully except now with the Graphics issue I am going to have a new PC. Question - I will obviously take out the additional SSD I added - the one with TS2018 on. If I put that into the new PC what's the chance that Steam will let me add that Steam library? The size of my content with all of the AP add-ons is around 56gb so I could download it all again. It's just that plug and play sounds so much nicer. One other question, and it relates to Steam Verify. Some of the AP programs presumably replace stock files, for example sounds, and with the lighting and stability packs potentially rather more. I noticed that the last time I ran verify 212 files were updated. Do people rerun AP files after verify? Does verify replace those 'non standard' files or replace any of those (say ambient sounds) that have been removed?
As far as I know, you should be able to remake the Steam library with the installs already there (just make sure you tell the Steam library to be created exactly where the old one is!). You will need to tell Steam to install the games, but if the Steam library is set up correctly, Steam should recognize that the game you just told it to install is actually already there. You may want to also try manually starting the game using the .exe file first, which may trigger Steam to realize what is going on as well. But you definitely want to reinstall AP stuff. Steam will most likely want you to verify files in the process of making sure the games actually work (not everything a game uses will be on the drive it is installed to!) and a verify will overwrite some of AP's modified files. Its easier than re-downloading the whole thing, nonetheless.
Excellent answer. I really appreciate your advice. AP is particularly interesting. When you get those unannounced updates from Steam you always wonder if the content may have invalidated any of the AP changes!
Updates without patch notes are certainly nobody's friend! Can't begin to guess what is broke if you don't even know what was supposedly fixed!
Just to finish this up before finishing with the old defective computer I moved Steam to the same SSD that TS was on. Checked that it was working fine. When the replacement laptop came I added the SSD with Steam and TS to the new machine. On starting up Steam it thought about it, complained about a non-writable path, repaired it and then I was up and running. Interestingly Steam didn’t notice that it was now running on a new machine. So to date it all looks fine. Again thanks for the help.
I have my hard disc divided into two partitions. The current C-drive (programmes drive, including Steam) is considerably smaller that the other partition, D-drive. Tonight I’m going to take a huge risk and try to move my steam-folder to D-drive. I have no fears about moving Steam and the content that I have bought via Steam, but the third-party content (repaints, enhancement packs, rolling stock) really worries me. There’s propably around 100-150GB of data, and if I need to install all that again, it’s going to take ages. Will the third-party add-ons work after the move or do I have to reinstall the whole lot?
Hello community! Farmer_C Yes and no. You will need to backup the following folder {...}steam/steamapps/common/Railworks/ and copy-paste it after the migration to the new location. If you're not willing to copy the entire, very large folder you could just do .../Railworks/Assets and .../Railworks/Content. The latter option has the minor risk of losing a few third party add-ons. If you choose the former, you're third party add-ons are safe. I already once migrated using the latter option, and it worked. I only needed to reinstall a repaint, I don't know exactly which one, sorry. Anyways, hope I helped, Cheers, ProfCreeptonius EDIT: This copy-paste job will be massive, so if you're scared of using up an SSD's p/e cycles, don't use an SSD for the backup. As said by others, your Railworks folder can accumulate up to 200-ish Gigabytes (like mine).
What a relief. Thanks very much ProfCreeptonius. Your kind advice is much appreciated. I don’t mind moving large quantities of data around (inc. the long waiting times). I’m only terrified by the potential threat of having to reinstall loads of small apps. Once again, thank you very much for your swift reply and the excellent advice. WbR, Farmer C
Data moved to another drive; Steam reinstalled with new parameters on the 'home' drive. Just tested with one modified scenario and everything seemed to be in place and in working order. OMG, can this really be true!!? I'm not gonna start celebrating yet, but at least the beginning looks promising.
