Does anybody know the best way to transfer all my files to Linux? I dabbled in it a bit, but I was a little worried I’d have to reinstall everything, considering I had to make a (relatively small) partition using my unused d drive space
Is there a way to transfer ~2TB worth of steam games, outside of uninstalling then reinstalling them?
It will be difficult, but technically possible. You’d have to ensure bitlocker is disabled on your windows drive. If you’re not sure what that is, don’t assume that means it’s not enabled. Windows does enable it by default in some cases. It encrypts your drive and you won’t be able to access it.
But in all honesty, I’d recommend just starting from scratch if steam games are what you’re most worried about. First, some of them might not work on Linux. Second, you may encounter strange issues that require redownloading much of your library anyway. Lastly, you’ll want to transfer them to a drive with a Linux file system which will take time. That’s if you even have the drive space to spare. More likely is you’ll be formatting that drive anyway to a Linux filesystem, wiping the contents anyway.
Even with slow internet, redownloading games as needed will be way easier and likely faster.
If you’re unsure what distro to go with, I recommend going with Bazzite. It’s a distro optimized for gaming and is an atomic distro. If you don’t know what that means, don’t worry about it, just know that for most casual users, an atomic distro makes way more sense and is much less likely to break. Additionally, if you have nvidia hardware, the drivers come pre installed so it’ll work right out of the box.
Just copy C:/Program Files (x86)/Steam/steamapps/common/ to /home/yourname/.local/share/Steam/steamapps/common/ and Steam will recognize those games are already present when you try to download them.
Consider this: why do you have 2TB of games installed?
IDK what your gaming habits are, but I find myself bouncing between a few at most, 1 big AAA at most, and found keeping the rest… to be blunt, data hoarding.
I suppose the only exception is modded setups, it even then I always redo them anyway since the base games, modding frameworks and mods get updated over time.
I have very bad internet, so I tend to prefer to keep my games installed, rather than wait 24 hours to download a 60gb game again. I still log on to things like MH world or DJMax respect V every now and then for a few rounds, they’re fun to go back to
Similarly, like you said, I have a lot of mods installed. To the point where my backup mod folder on my external hdd is about 100GB in size, so I’m a little worried about spending hours tracking down all my mod lists again
I’ve transferred about 400GB in (legally sourced) roms to my steam deck, so I thought there’d be a way to do this, but oh well
Some of those games have native Linux build, and even though Windows version will work under Proron, native version will work better, worth checking out.
Even worse, TPS. Days chug along in Linux compared to Windows, along the lines of a 1.5x slowdown.
FPS spikes are much worse, too. I tested both extensively on the same saves, using their native performance tools (the perf commands in stellaris and DPA in Rimworld).
Does anybody know the best way to transfer all my files to Linux? I dabbled in it a bit, but I was a little worried I’d have to reinstall everything, considering I had to make a (relatively small) partition using my unused d drive space
Is there a way to transfer ~2TB worth of steam games, outside of uninstalling then reinstalling them?
It will be difficult, but technically possible. You’d have to ensure bitlocker is disabled on your windows drive. If you’re not sure what that is, don’t assume that means it’s not enabled. Windows does enable it by default in some cases. It encrypts your drive and you won’t be able to access it.
But in all honesty, I’d recommend just starting from scratch if steam games are what you’re most worried about. First, some of them might not work on Linux. Second, you may encounter strange issues that require redownloading much of your library anyway. Lastly, you’ll want to transfer them to a drive with a Linux file system which will take time. That’s if you even have the drive space to spare. More likely is you’ll be formatting that drive anyway to a Linux filesystem, wiping the contents anyway.
Even with slow internet, redownloading games as needed will be way easier and likely faster.
If you’re unsure what distro to go with, I recommend going with Bazzite. It’s a distro optimized for gaming and is an atomic distro. If you don’t know what that means, don’t worry about it, just know that for most casual users, an atomic distro makes way more sense and is much less likely to break. Additionally, if you have nvidia hardware, the drivers come pre installed so it’ll work right out of the box.
Just copy
C:/Program Files (x86)/Steam/steamapps/common/to/home/yourname/.local/share/Steam/steamapps/common/and Steam will recognize those games are already present when you try to download them.Consider this: why do you have 2TB of games installed?
IDK what your gaming habits are, but I find myself bouncing between a few at most, 1 big AAA at most, and found keeping the rest… to be blunt, data hoarding.
I suppose the only exception is modded setups, it even then I always redo them anyway since the base games, modding frameworks and mods get updated over time.
You can redownload what you use, progressively.
I have very bad internet, so I tend to prefer to keep my games installed, rather than wait 24 hours to download a 60gb game again. I still log on to things like MH world or DJMax respect V every now and then for a few rounds, they’re fun to go back to
Similarly, like you said, I have a lot of mods installed. To the point where my backup mod folder on my external hdd is about 100GB in size, so I’m a little worried about spending hours tracking down all my mod lists again
I’ve transferred about 400GB in (legally sourced) roms to my steam deck, so I thought there’d be a way to do this, but oh well
Some of those games have native Linux build, and even though Windows version will work under Proron, native version will work better, worth checking out.
This is not always true. I measured that the Proton version of Rimworld and Stellaris, for instance, are massively faster than the Linux one.
What do you mean faster? More fps? Better loading times?
Even worse, TPS. Days chug along in Linux compared to Windows, along the lines of a 1.5x slowdown.
FPS spikes are much worse, too. I tested both extensively on the same saves, using their native performance tools (the perf commands in stellaris and DPA in Rimworld).