how to reinstall steam games

[Dexterr]

I am having one problem. I have purchased CD edition of Half Life 2 around two year’s back. Now my disk was corrupted. It has lots of scratches on it. So whenever I tried to install the game it gives me the cyclic redundant error. It’s due the bad CD. I have steam account registered. Is there any way to install steam game? Currently I have the game installed in system. But if I want to uninstall the game and want to install it later few days back. So how can I do this? Can anyone provide the solution?

[RyanInt]

Hello friend, if you uninstalled the game. It will doesn’t cause you the loss of the game. steam client keeps track of the games in it. When you purchased game you have to register game with the steam account. While registering you need to create the account with user Id and password. After the online login you are registering the game. So if you removed the game it is with the account only. So if you open your account in different machine you can see your game. I have installed lots of game trough online. So after uninstalling you can download game trough the steam client and install it to your system.

[Wyvern]

Steam client has backup and restore feature which you can use to install and uninstall the games. Please don’t waste the bandwidth of the internet for downloading game. So don’t uninstall game without taking the backup. You can do this by following this step
- Right click on the steam library
- Select backup Game files
- The list will appears which will let you know that how many games are installed.
- You can now select the game which you want to take backup.
- Click next
- Select folder where you want to save backup of the game.
- Give the name to backup file. And select the medium CD, DVD or custom to set the size.
- Now click next.
- Backup process will start.
- After completion you can go to backup directory to view the backup files.
- You can burn them to the CD or DVD
It can help you to keep the game copy safe.

[Abbie]

I know the other way to backup the game files. Try to do this
- Go to your \steamapps\ folder all the games installs here
- Locate any .ncf files for the game at the location.
- Search the game in \common\ folder
- Copy .ncf files and the game files to a disc or in the hard drive. You can reinstall it later.
- If you want to install the game, copy .ncf files and game folders to your Steam directory. The files must be placed in correct location .ncf files has to be in \steamapps\ folder and the files must be in \common\ folder
- Re-start Steam client small download will done to verify the installation files.

[desilva]

I am having many games in steam apps. I am not using the steams backup and restore. Rather than you can do this to save time and it will help to simplify backup and restore process. As you know files for the steam installed games are stored in the steamapps folder. If you have steam client in default location i.e. in c:\program files then the steamapps will be in c:\program files\Steam\SteamApps folder. To move the folder to other location. Do the following
- Exit the Steam client application if it’s running in background.
- Go to the Steam installation folder for the Steam game installation you would like to move
- Delete all of the files and folders in the folder except SteamApps folder and Steam.exe
- Now Copy and paste the whole Steam folder to the new location, for example if you want to save game in other location then it will be D:\mystored games\ past steam folder insides
Now the games are stored in other location so if you want to install the games just copy paste the files to the steam directory again. It’s one of the easiest way to keep game files in pc.

[Dexterr]

Thanks for providing help for me. I don’t want to download the game from the internet so I have tried the inbuilt backup and restore. Using the method he provided. I tried it and it works perfectly for me. Now I have the backup of Half Life 2 on the HDD and also kept it in the DVD. Its good mechanism valve has provided to keep copy of game. And it’s easy to install also just double click on the backup file exe and its installs again in steam.

[MacIntel]

There is also other way to backup game files.
-login with the steam account online or offline any mode will be ok.
-After launching steam client click on the File menu.
-now select Backup and restore game.
- In the selection option select Backup currently installed games
- List of the game installed on your pc will be shown up.
-select the game which you want to backup
-Select location for the game to store. You can also make new folder or use default
-all the game files will be stored successfully on location you give.
I have around 40 to 50 GB of game backup stored by me using this method. If you want to install the game just go to the backup file location. And double click on the file. Or you can go to file menu and select backup and restore. And in that select restore previous backup.