Install games to external hard drive: Is that possible?

By installing games to an external hard drive, you can save lots of space on your PC and still use the respective games. USB sticks, external SSDs as well as HDDs are suitable for this.

What you need to know about installing games on an external hard drive

A PC with a directly installed, very powerful SSD is always also associated with a high purchase price. Accordingly, the possibility of installing games on an external hard drive is attractive.

1. There are basically three options for this. You can use an external SSD, which is correspondingly expensive. However, this option is significantly lower than the price of a directly installed, internal SSD. The second option is to use an external HDD hard drive. A game can also be accessed from external storage by means of a USB stick.
2. Between these three external hard drives, both price and speed differ. An external SSD will always perform better than an HDD in terms of game loading times.
3. Some USB sticks can also keep up with the SSD, as long as you use a USB 3.0 port for it. This enables a high data transfer rate.

How to install a Steam Game

Steam is one of the largest gaming platforms. Wollen Sie ein Spiel von hier auf einer externen Festplatte installieren, gehen Sie so vor:

1. Öffnen Sie Steam und gehen Sie zu „Steam > Einstellungen > Downloads“.
2. Klicken Sie auf „Steam-Bibliotheksordner“.
3. Wählen Sie „Verzeichnis hinzufügen“ und navigieren Sie zu der angeschlossenen externen Festplatte.
4. Installieren Sie nun ein Game, können Sie die externe Platte als Zielverzeichnis auswählen.