I have an imac with a windows 7 boot camp partition. I just got a crap load of valve games and I am running into storage issues since I only partitioned 30 gigs for windows. Is there any way to download a game from the steam network and store it on a external hard drive and move it to the windows partition when I want to play it? As of right now I can only have 1 game (left for dead 2 for instance) on my drive at one time.

I know I could repartition and add more storage but I don't want to run into the same problem on my mac side.

12/28/2009 10:59:43 AM

From the point of view on convenience, you just might want to invest in a larger HDD. 500GB drives start around $85 on newegg.

12/28/2009 11:01:52 AM

just install steam on the external. Ive a simular setup to this on my desktop, its on a secondary HD not the main C:\ drive.

12/28/2009 11:04:04 AM

resize the partition and get rid of the osx part.

12/28/2009 11:07:16 AM

I would love to replace the Hard drive but working on the internals of an Imac is not my forte. I am interested on how you got steam to install on an external harddrive. I have 2 500 gig WD firewire drives attached to my mac and could easily use one. Master_Yoda how did you get it to install on your external? Thanks in advance.

12/28/2009 9:45:18 PM

^^lol

12/28/2009 10:13:41 PM

wouldn't the read/write times to a usb device be extremely slow in a gaming environment? especially playing something like GTA4?

12/29/2009 10:20:32 AM

don, you are gonna have to uninstall steam. That said, COPY your whole steam directory to the new location first, this will save you massive downloading later with your games and whatnot.

Then just install it. Somewhere in installation itll say where to install, change that to the new location (on your external).

As far as r/w speeds Im not sure. Id be a little slower but Ive done it before with it not being too too bad. Firewire I think the current spec is slightly faster than USB2 so it shouldnt be that bad. HD speeds in general suck. Which is why we have SSDs coming out

12/29/2009 10:26:15 AM

Quote :

"working on the internals of an Imac is not my forte"

Don't be afraid. It take 5 minutes and all you need is a screwdriver.

12/29/2009 11:13:02 AM

actually depending on the model of imac you may need suction cups instead

12/29/2009 11:15:06 AM

Thanks for the comments. And yeah I believe it needs suction cups and I don't want to fuck with it that much. I am going to try and uninstall steam and move the directory. In the mean time I can have 2 games installed at the same time which should satisfy my gaming needs. Thanks again, and FYI the same valve collection I bought for 80 bucks is now 75 in case anyone wants all the half life series and left for dead 1/2.

12/29/2009 7:57:09 PM