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No more space on my Hard Drive need to move Steam games to second HD

Discussion in 'STEAM Powered Linux' started by Lorena, Dec 16, 2020.

  1. Lorena

    Lorena Member

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    Hello People
    Need a lil help here.
    My primary HD run out of space so I got a second HD. I formated the second HD with FAT32.
    My goal is to be able to install all my steam games in that "second" HD and move there the only one I already have installed in the "primary" HD.
    But when I go to Steam to try do things it says that it cant be done because of permisions and etc etc.
    I was reading around the net but not sure what to do... is the format FAT32 ok or Im picking the wrong format??
    Any step by step help please?

    thanks people
    Hugs from Buenos Aires
    Lorena
  2. booman

    booman Grand High Exalted Mystic Emperor of Linux Gaming Staff Member

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    Hi Lorena,
    Sorry for the late reply, I was on vacation and away from my email.

    Since you are using Linux, its best to format as any hard drives as: EXT4
    This is important if you want full permissions and usability of that drive.
    I think FAT32 has some limitations, but it is better for flash drives or external drives that you want to share with Windows.
  3. Daerandin

    Daerandin Well-Known Member

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    FAT32 does not support POSIX file ownership and permissions, which is one primary issue you might face. Additionally, FAT32 is a really old filesystem that basically has zero error recovery features, making it a poor choice for storing any kind of data that you can't easily recover through other means.

    As booman says, ext4 is one of the best and most reliable choices.

    But, even with it formatted to ext4, there is a chance the first time you mount the drive, it might be completely owned by root. In that case, you might want to either: change ownership of the mounted drive to your user, or simply create a directory there which is owned by your user.
  4. Lorena

    Lorena Member

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    Hello my two genious!!!!
    Yes I did format that second hard drive in ext4 and i was able to put my steam games there.
    Was working for 3 or 4 days fine (and I had to deal with owner privileges like Daweandin said) BUT.....
    Now I cant access the drive anymore, doesn show in my NEMO, even when Im able to see the drive in "DISKS".
    As you can see the disk is OK with only 1 bad sector.
    Partition Type: Unknown
    Content: Unknown
    Screenshot from 2020-12-22 21-33-11.png Screenshot from 2020-12-22 21-30-15.png

    So tell me guys... what I have to do to recover my steam games now???? Cause I already installed 2 games there and moved one that I was already playing....
    Thanks you for your knowledge boys
    Hugs from Buenos Aires, Argentina
    Lore
  5. booman

    booman Grand High Exalted Mystic Emperor of Linux Gaming Staff Member

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    Try plugging the drive into a different SATA port on the motherboard... if there is one.
    You may have to use the Disks tool in Linux. If it shows up under Disks then you can run tests on it there. You can also manually mount it.

    Normally when you add a new disk to an existing computer you have to go into FSTAB (File System Table) and add it in there so the drive is mounted at boot

    Disk
    upload_2021-1-5_14-21-12.png

    FSTAB
    upload_2021-1-5_14-22-56.png

    I got the UUID from the DISKS application and plugged it into FSTAB with my 1Terabyte drive
  6. Lorena

    Lorena Member

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    Ohhh I see. Yes I understand.
    Anyway my computer is down. The power supply die a week ago and husband said maybe that's the reason hard drives where dying on me.
    Voltage was fluctuating a lot and Gustavo said this was possibly affecting the whole computer.
    booman likes this.
  7. booman

    booman Grand High Exalted Mystic Emperor of Linux Gaming Staff Member

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    Sorry, I took so long to reply... I'm not always getting the notifications.

    Power Supplies can create all kinds of issues.
    I only purchase Enermax power supplies and they haven't failed me for over 15 years! What a testament to power!

    Normally if a power supply goes out it doesn't surge the other hardware. I'm sure it happens, but if you can connect that hard drive to another computer, that will verify if it still works

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