Renamed Steam's download folder to your hard drive location
Renamed Steam's download folder to your hard drive location
I considered it a solid plan (almost always does). Moving Steam's download folder to my HDD using a symbolic link helps reduce SSD usage. When Steam updates or downloads, it first goes to steamapps/downloading and then copies the files to steamapps/gamename, which can double the SSD writes compared to the game itself. To set this up, I created a symlink on my HDD so downloads land there. The process involves exiting Steam, removing the old download folder, creating a new one (like mine is B:\sdownloads), and running the command with admin privileges via CMD.
At first, you have the option to pick a different storage device for downloading the game.
It's about the location of temporary files for the game you're installing or when updates happen, not the final destination of the game itself.
Unless your temp files are stored on the second drive, it will quickly consume write speed on your main drive. If this is your boot/OS drive, performance will drop over time and the drive’s lifespan will shorten.
The files move to a specific folder but before reaching that location, they need to be downloaded first. Once downloaded, they transfer to another directory, which can consume storage unnecessarily. Even after updates, the game remains in the initial download path instead of moving correctly.
Great idea. It would be better to update my SSD rather than stress over wear on my HDD used for the games library. I own a dedicated HDD with SteamLibrary, OriginLibrary, Battle.net and GeneralGames, all kept for storing game files so they’re easy to install. Everything else lives on my NAS, leaving my main HDD mainly for operating system and programs.
No one understands that part, please clarify what you mean by the "downloading" folder!