How to Transfer Games to an External Hard Drive | Game Moving Tool
| Workable Solutions | Step-by-step Troubleshooting |
|---|---|
| Use Free Software- Qiling Disk Master | Step 1. Connect your external hard drive to your computer. Open Qiling Disk Master and select...Full steps |
| Manual Methods |
Case 1 - Transfer Installed Origin Games Between...Full steps Case 2 - Move Steam Games to External Hard Drive...Full steps Case 3 - Move Blizzard Games to a Different Hard Drive...Full steps Case 4 - Move a PC Game to Another Hard Drive...Full steps |
Games often take up a lot of PC space. If you install too many games on your internal drive, you may easily receive a C drive full or not enough space waring. Usually, for most gamers and common users, using an external hard drive is a great way to have more storage space.
You can have all the gaming power without having to work on the inside of your computer. All you need to do is plug in the external hard drives, and move PC games to an external hard drive in two ways.
Ways to Move Games to External Hard Drive (Automatic & Manual)
Stop hopping from page to page. Saving time, we have compiled two reliable methods.
| Comparison | Qiling Game Mover | Manual Ways |
|---|---|---|
| Scenarios | Move games & platforms to external hard drive. | Change games install location one by one. |
| Easy-to-use | Yes | Yes (part of) |
| Transfer Speed | Fast (One-click transfer) | Not sure (Based on game size) |
If an automatic game migration solution is your preference, you can click "Qiling game mover" on the table. And, if you enjoy a manual way without third-party software in saving games on an external hard drive, then pick "Manual Ways" on part 2.
How to Move Games to External Hard Drive with Free PC Game Mover
Check all ways for straightforward moving, move games to an external hard drive is an easy thing through PC game mover - Qiling Disk Master Free. You can take this professional game mover to change the program install location for free. This PC game mover tool can 100% solve how to move games to an external hard drive.
Qiling Disk Master
- Transfer to a new PC: Steam, Origin, LOL, Blizzard.
- Transfer to a new drive: DIABLO, WORLD OF WARCRAFT,
OVERWATCH, HEARTHSTONE, HEROES OF THE STORM, etc. - 3 steps to migrate games apps to a new pc or a new drive.
Download this software and directly launch this software to help you move games or apps from a PC to an external hard drive.
Step 1. Connect your external hard drive to your computer. Open Qiling Disk Master and select "Backup and recovery > File sync".
Step 2. Find and choose the applications (marked as "Yes") that you want to transfer. You can select multiple apps.
Click the triangle icon and select your external hard drive as the destination to store the apps.
Step 3. Then, click "Proceed" to move your programs to an external hard drive.
Speaking of install games on an external hard drive, some users may want to know such a question - what is the difference between playing games on a hard drive and an external hard drive?
The fact is the external device doesn't load as fast as the internal hard drive, and if your device is randomly disconnected from the PC, your game data will lose.
Read also:
How to Transfer Games to External Hard Drive PC Manually
Although the copying and pasting worked like a charm sometimes, this method can not make sure 100% program moving than Qiling Disk Master in transferring games from PC to external hard drive.
Here, I'd like to take Origin/Steam/Blizzard games for example. In the end, we also introduce a general method to move games to an external hard drive in windows 11/10.
Transfer Installed Origin Games Between Hard Drives
How to Move Steam Games to External Hard Drive
Move Blizzard Games to a Different Hard Drive
How to Move a PC Game to Another Hard Drive
Case 1 - Transfer Installed Origin Games Between Hard Drives
Step 1. Open Windows Explorer and create a folder on the external hard drive where you'll store your games.
Step 2. Head to your current Origin folder and find the folder for the game you want to move. Copy it to the new location, and delete the old files.
Step 3. Open Origin and head to "Origin > Application Settings > Installs & Saves". Under "Game Library Location", click the "Change location" button and direct it to the folder on your new hard drive.
Close origin completely, even from the background. This only affects newly installed games, so your current library will not be affected.
Step 4. Return to "My Game Library" and click the "Download" button to re-install the game.
Instead of re-downloading the game, Origin will detect the existing files there and make any necessary minor changes. When it's done, you should be able to play the game as usual.
Case 2 - How to Move Steam Games to External Hard Drive
Step 1. Connect your external hard drive to your PC. Open Windows Explorer and create a new folder on the external hard drive.
Step 2. Open Steam, then click Steam > Settings > Downloads > Steam Library Folders > Add Library Folder > Choose the folder on the external hard drive.
Step 3. Open Library, choose the game you want to move, right-click it and select Properties.
Step 4. Choose the Local Files tab > Move Install Folder
The steps only suit to move a game each time. If you want to move more than one game or get a better method, you can read how to move steam game to another drive.
Case 3 - Move Blizzard Games to a Different Hard Drive
The manual solution for moving Blizzard games to an external hard drive relates to uninstall and reinstall. It will spend more time in the redownloading process. We also provide more than one fix about moving Blizzard games to another drive.
Step 1. Open the Blizzard Battle.net desktop app, select the icon for the game you want to uninstall, select Options > Uninstall Game.
Step 2. In the Blizzard Battle.net desktop app, choose Install > Choose Change under Install Location section. Then select Start Install.
Case 4 - How to Move a PC Game to Another Hard Drive (General)
Case 4 applies to move games on all game platforms to an external hard drive. In general, no matter what games you install, you will find the default game location store in C:\Program Files\Windows Apps.
Step 1. Connect an external hard drive on your computer.
Step 2. Follow the default path to copy and paste your games to another drive.
Even though the method is workable, you can not copy some hidden files to the destination, which causes your games to fail in play. So why not try the reliable one to copy with transferring games from pc to external hard drive? Way back to use Qiling Disk Master.
Games Can Be Transferred, So is File and Account!
As a data migrating software, this PC transfer tool helps transfer your data, applications, and account settings from one PC to another in one click.
- Transfer applications, Windows accounts from one PC to another, such as moving Microsoft Office.
- Transfer or back up data from one PC to another
- Transfer Steam to SSD, or move other games to another drive
- Recover data from a dead/unbootable PC
- Free up C drive space, and clean up junk files
FAQ about Moving Games to External Hard Drive in Windows 10/11
In addition to game moving, most users are interested in the following questions:
1. Can I Use an External Hard Drive for Gaming?
Yes, you can. The best external hard drives are extremely easy to use. All you need to do is plug them in. Besides, an external hard drive can be a great way to install games on multiple computers. Generally speaking, no file formatting is needed to use an external hard drive for gaming.
2. How Do I Move Games From C Drive to D Drive?
- Choose "App Migration".
- Select the games you want to transfer.
- Choose D drive as your destination.
- Click "Transfer" to start.
3. Can you run apps from an external hard drive Mac?
Yes, Macs don't care where programs are launched from - there is no especially blessed location, so you can run them off an external drive.
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