Steam move....?

[Javis]

My C drive is almost full. Main reason : Steam ! (both MSFS 2020 and 2024 bought from Steam)

According to many suggestions on the internet it should be childs play to move the complete Steam installation folder to another location. It sure looks like that too but i get stuck already early in the process because " the operation cannot be completed because the folder or file in the folder is used in another program. Close the folder or file and try again".

It looks like it's all dll files that cannot be moved.

It will be highly appreciated if someone here with much more computer knowledge than me could tell me how exactly to go about circumventing this particular problem so i can free up a lot of space on my poor C drive.

On forehand thank you very much !

 

[modelr]

I definitely don't have more computer knowledge than you, I've just done this one quite a few times.

It's easy, Javis. From your library page, uninstall the game (generic name) you want to move. Don't worry, you won't lose anything. The title will be greyed out, however still clickable. Click on it and the game page will open, with "install" button instead of "play." An "install" page will open. Click on the "settings" icon. A "storage" page will open. The first line will be your main storage line, with a drop-down. The drop-down will show any drives you have used for Steam so far. If the one you want to use is not shown, the last item is "+ Add drive." Choose the one you want, and it will install a new "Steam" folder, and all the necessary stuff required to run, including add-ons and DLCs.

 

[Tako_Kichi]

Don's suggestion above is a good one but it means re-installing the sim again and you might want to back up any CFG files hidden anywhere (like controller settings, key bindings, etc.) in case they get wiped out and replaced. Another option could be my suggestion below.

If it names the problem files then check each one individually as follows:

1) Right-click on the file and select 'Properties'.
2) Look at the bottom of the 'Properties' window for the 'Attributes' line.
3) If the 'Read-only' box is checked then uncheck it and click on the 'Apply' button at the bottom of the box.
4) Close the 'Properties' window using the 'OK' button not the 'X' at the top of the window.
5) Repeat steps 1-4 for every other problem file.
6) Try to move the files through Steam again.

OR

If there are a lot of problem files you could try the 'big hammer' method .

1) Navigate to the sim's root folder (in my case that would be the 'P3Dv4 folder, no idea what it is for MSFS 2020).
2) Right-click on the folder and select 'Properties'.
3) Look at the bottom of the 'Properties' window for the 'Attributes' line.
4) If the 'Read-only' box is checked then uncheck it and click on the 'Apply' button at the bottom of the box.
5) Close the 'Properties' window using the 'OK' button not the 'X' at the top of the window.
6) Try to move the files through Steam again.

This method will check every file within the folder and remove any 'Read-only' flags. It will take longer than manually doing a few files but it is all automated.

The bottom line is that any file that is flagged as 'Read-only' cannot be moved to another location hence Steam complaining when it tries to move the sim.

 

[DennyA]

There are a couple of options. It’s harder if you accepted the default install location for your Community and Official folders. If you pointed those folders to a different location when installing FS2020, you can just uninstall and reinstall and point the files back at that folder.

Here’s the normal way to move a Steam game, which is easy for most games:

How to Move a Steam Game to Another Drive, The Easy Way

You can easily move a game from one hard drive to another without downloading it all over again,

www.howtogeek.com

However, MSFS has the OneStore folder, and I don’t know if Steam moves that because I bought from MS. If the official way doesn’t give you enough space on the drive, because it didn’t move the data files, here’s what I would do for FS2020:

1. Create a folder like “D:\MSFS2020” on your second drive
2. Move the current Community and OneStore folders from your C drive to that folder
3. Uninstall MSFS (don’t worry, your settings will be saved in the cloud)
4. Reinstall MSFS on your second drive
5. During the install process, it will ask you where you want to download your files. Instead of accepting the default folder, select the folder you created in Step 1. It will find the files from your previous install there, and it won’t re-download everything.
6. All your stuff will now be on your second drive, except for a few small data files in your user folder.

For FS2024, I’d just uninstall and reinstall on the other drive, since it’s only about 30-50GB of download vs a couple hundred.

 

[Javis]

Well, that's enough to get me thru the weekend and into the new year ! ;-)

Thank you very much, gentlemen !!

I'll probabely try all of your suggestions and learn something on the way. Up front, @ Larry : all 'read-only' boxes of the dll files that prevent the move were unchecked already so i can strike that off the list and get out the big hammer. ;-) And thanks for the link and the re-install 2024 tip, Denny ! ( still can't get anything to save correctly (hate to have to fill in the forms each time i start a new flight...) so i don't have to worry about that. First time 2024 installation went surprisingly fast and smooth.

That points me to another option, before buying FS2024 i was thinking of replacing my 'old'ish' system but that went on the backburner quickly when i saw how well 2024 performed on my current machine. Now however, with the almost full C drive at hand i might give that scenario another thought. Kill one stone with two birds (i hate killing birds ;-) But that's a lot of hassle i'm sure so i'm going to see how far i can get with all of your suggestions first !

Thanks very much again Don, Larry and Denny ! I'll report back how well it went (or ruined a good ol' system ! )