Steam question

I'm not sure what Steam Guard and CEG use to determine what's a "new PC" and what isn't, but reinstalling Windows will pretty much always trip you over.

I do that fairly regularly and have to do a bunch of verifies every time.
 
Hmm, thats interesting. Maybe cause I had to reinstall steam from scratch thsi time around .
Shrug.
I had lost myi raid array which i had all my games (most) and a lot of Multi Media on.
even though it was the same mobo, but later revision 3 of it (asus upper end one)
windows did install a buttload of drivers when I booted up. Didnt' have to reinstall windows though, that wasn't on the raid (not that dumb).
EDIt, come to think of it. I did also trip the 'Windows must be registered within 2 days'"
feature too in the process.
Just for the record. That went just swell too. OEM copy of windows home premium 7
 
I figure that might just be it.. notably it uses the windows install key as a "unique identifier". For macs and such who knows, there's probably something similar. Valve might say somewhere, but offhand I'm skeptical they'd say something which is key to their encryption and copyright DRM system... it'd be a quick way to narrow down how to break it.

Of course, people HAVE broken it, sort of, as seen by the fact that pirates keep coming about here, then going "how do I install this mod, I don't have the steam version" and promptly getting tossed back into the deeps of the internet. Still, that's no reason for Valve to go and let the specifics be free to every script kiddie out there.

Really, while you can do a full copy of the steam directory, most of it isn't nescessary and the stuff would be added with an install and log-in to your account. Heck, if you go the steam cloud route for savegames, all you would want is to copy the steamapps directory, as it's the only thing of note. Steam is intentionally computer-unspecific (unlike stupid securom, which if you have a game sold over steam that ALSO uses it, like say the Batman games, will cause issues and probably force you to re-download it or parts of it), so you can access your profile from any machine you log in to. Of course only one machine at a time, but that's their DRM system.


Good luck with your new computer and all!
 
I don't think I would go about doing what your talking about doing, unless you have 2 computers hooked with a wired lan or a very expensive wireless router or 2 computers that support the new 3.0 USB (transers up to 4.8Gbps) if none of those are the case then it's going to take you around an hour to move all of those files, also if your moving to an external and then the other pc could be 2 hours :p and the basic install from the disks is only what 15 minutes or so.

just a suggestion hope this helped.
 
brokendiamond said:
I don't think I would go about doing what your talking about doing, unless you have 2 computers hooked with a wired lan or a very expensive wireless router or 2 computers that support the new 3.0 USB (transers up to 4.8Gbps) if none of those are the case then it's going to take you around an hour to move all of those files, also if your moving to an external and then the other pc could be 2 hours :p and the basic install from the disks is only what 15 minutes or so.

just a suggestion hope this helped.
Click to expand...
It's a massive pain in the ass to reinstall all these games, and way slower than copying over sensible LAN. Besides, you can start this file copy going overnight and just come back to it in the morning.

Gondar said:
I figure that might just be it.. notably it uses the windows install key as a "unique identifier". For macs and such who knows, there's probably something similar. Valve might say somewhere, but offhand I'm skeptical they'd say something which is key to their encryption and copyright DRM system... it'd be a quick way to narrow down how to break it.

Of course, people HAVE broken it, sort of, as seen by the fact that pirates keep coming about here, then going "how do I install this mod, I don't have the steam version" and promptly getting tossed back into the deeps of the internet. Still, that's no reason for Valve to go and let the specifics be free to every script kiddie out there.

Really, while you can do a full copy of the steam directory, most of it isn't nescessary and the stuff would be added with an install and log-in to your account. Heck, if you go the steam cloud route for savegames, all you would want is to copy the steamapps directory, as it's the only thing of note. Steam is intentionally computer-unspecific (unlike stupid securom, which if you have a game sold over steam that ALSO uses it, like say the Batman games, will cause issues and probably force you to re-download it or parts of it), so you can access your profile from any machine you log in to. Of course only one machine at a time, but that's their DRM system.


Good luck with your new computer and all!
Click to expand...
Modern steam games using Steam's CEG (custom executable generation) like SR:TT have a unique executable for _every computer_. Admittedly only parts of the EXE change, but it is unique. That's part of the reason we're saying to do a reverify.
 
Thanks for all the great info/suggestions. My main concern was getting burned with validation but from all the input - seems to be a non issue - cool.

Yes I used to go the install route for everything when it came time for a reformat. As Minimaul mentions, this is a pain in the ass and I do exactly as he suggests - Get the copy going before bed, not only for games but pics, videos, etc, etc...not to mention no hassle in trying to remember which mods are installed and redoing all that - ya it takes awhile but I'm sawin logs so its all good.

Much appreciated guys.

Rock on!
 
One more helpful Steam tip:

If you ever need to uninstall the Steam client for any reason, make absolutely sure that you have backed up or moved your common folder that contains your game data. An uninstall of the client via windows will wipe out EVERYTHING including your game files.

I learned this one the hard way after trying to troubleshoot a client problem and ended having to redownload something like 800Gb of game files. Ouch.
 
I am in the process of copying the Steam folder from 1 computer to the other.

Luckily it is only 319 GB right now.
 
I usually can't be bothered! If you have a fast internet connection you can just re-download the missing games..... I just let it run over night. :D
 
arkayn said:
I am in the process of copying the Steam folder from 1 computer to the other.

Luckily it is only 319 GB right now.
Click to expand...
steam-and-origin.png

Mine's getting painful...
 
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