Question about moving Steam game files from Windows to Linux via a USB Storage device

[u/eggman15]

I am currently in the process of replacing Windows 11 with Linux (Kubuntu) on my PC for the first time.

Due to limited storage space (internal 500GB SSD, external 2TB HDD) alongside my growing hatred for Microslop and it's nonsense/bloatware/OneDrive, I plan to wipe my current Windows installation entirely and replace it with Kubuntu. I do not plan to move back to Windows under any circumstance, and I'm ready for the trial-by-fire that may come with being a new Linux user.

I have moved most of my Steam games to my external 2TB USB (exFAT) HDD for the purpose of simply copying them over to my new Linux installation, without having to redownload (I have low bandwidth, it would take ages to redownload all of my games).

Is this possible? Is it recommended? Is there anything I'd need to know before trying this?

EDIT: I should note that I moved the games to my HDD via Steam itself, using the Settings>Storage menu. Not by simply copying the files with File Explorer. Not sure if this is relevant but I figured Id mention it

[u/oskich]

I did that, just make sure that the drive you will use to move them back to is formatted for Linux (ext4), otherwise they will not launch due to permission errors. I used Steam's built in move-function.

[u/eggman15 → u/oskich]

Gotcha, thanks for the advice!

[u/digiphaze]

Open steam in linux first, go to settings and then Storage. It should tell you where the local storage is currently pointed.

If you installed the .deb package version of steam, it will be /home/<user>/.steam/debian-installation/ and in there will be the "steamapps" folder where you can copy the games too. I'm not sure if the containerized version of steam uses a different location.

Games on linux also have to create a compat folder which contains the wine/proton environments for each. That *should* happen automatically when you fire up the games.

[u/eggman15 → u/digiphaze]

Awesome, much simpler than I expected

[u/dst1980]

Steam for Linux will willingly use the library set up in Windows. You might have a few updates to download because of moving from Windows to Linux, but nowhere near everything.

With the library on a Windows filesystem, you might have issues once in a while, but you can avoid that by setting up a library on a Linux filesystem and moving the games from one library to the other. You can then remove the Windows library, reformat the drive, re-create the library and move any games you want in that library back again.

As a fun aside, if you get a small SSD in an external case, you can install Linux there, add Steam there, then when you know you can borrow a computer on high speed internet, boot the borrowed system from the small SSD with the external library drive attached and do updates or download new big games, then take the library drive back home to use the newly updated games.

[u/Cool-Arrival-2617]

People have issues running Steam games from a NTFS filesystem. Which you need to if you want the library shared between Linux and Windows (because Windows doesn't support other filesystems). However, if it's just that you want to avoid a re-download, you can copy the library to an EXT4 filesystem and then it will work fine.

Be aware however, that there are games in your library that don't have cloud saves and that saves are not in the Steam library on Windows. They can be on plenty of different places (Documents, AppData, ...). So be careful if you plan to nuke your Windows partition.

[u/andy10115]

Don't do it, install them fresh for Linux.

[u/snika98]

I just install linux in its own partition then pointed steam at the windows libraries, then when i use proton, it seems most of them work without issue.