Steam Game Files Question (Giveaway Inside)

steamapps folder/s.

Copy your whole Steam folder to the backup drive.
Copy the "my documents" folder as well.
Most games store game setup and save files to the my documents folder, but, a very few games save the data in the steam games folder like Fear 3.

Wait, isn't it possible to increase your Os drive partition?

The things I cleaned and then backed up when I (finally) upgraded from XP to 7 were...

• the Documents and Settings folder (using WinDirStat to clear out the largest unnecessary things)
• download locations for Firefox and EA Origin
• very specific folders within Program Files (standalone games/apps and, after uninstalling everything, Steam)
• my Scheduled Tasks
• the settings for my mouse (I use a Logitech mouse, so this meant backing up SetPoint's folder)
• my QuickLaunch shortcuts
• made notes about my Firefox add-ons (Xmarks takes care of backing up my bookmarks, but for specific preferences that I can't back up, I took screenshots, and also made a list of all my add-ons)
• exported a list of all installed programs (there's an option in CCleaner's Uninstall page to create a text list)
• made a note after-the-fact that I should have backed up my custom browser search engine options
• for passwords, I use KeePass, so I'm not relying on any passwords that are saved in the browser, and it's easy to back up
• any 3rd party shortcuts added to Steam (especially those with command line parameters) (screenshotted a list of the Installed list of the Library after uninstalling everything)
• from a DOS window, printed out to a text file a list of all the sub-folders in Program Files
• a full registry backup
• and I have a launch menu bound to my mouse that I took a screenshot of

  (side note: I hate doing the Windows "upgrade" path since it will likely leave a lot of cruft behind -- did a full wipe and install after the backups)

All of that was almost 28 gigs. Steam was almost eight of those gigs. Documents and Settings was about 11.

Things that were especially useful to have had backed up were a lot of the miscellaneous settings, as well as the Documents and Settings folder (went back to that numerous times) and the Steam folder (went back to it occasionally).

I have most non-app/non-OS things (videos, music, install files, etc.) on separate drives, so there was no need to do anything with those.

[edit]
if you use Mumble, make sure you save the server settings
and I could have cleaned a lot more out of Steam's folder, but I was getting restless and didn't care so much about the space
[/edit]

Use GameSave Manager It even gives you the option to back up those saves in a cloud storage. And there's ton of other realy great options like scheduald backups and such.

Saves usually are on Steam Cloud, so if you download the game you will download the save too (I discover this after reinstall FF VII), if you wish to make a back up, go to userdata (the saves are there) some save files will be on "My Documents" too. You can use Save Game Manager to make a back up.

bump...