Looks like I have both SSD and HDD - will Steam know which drive to install it on?
Boy, this is going to be quite a game.
You can specify which drive at install time, or even move them between drives once installed.
Steam is installed on whatever drive you designated when you installed it, and that’s where it runs games from. If you want to run a Steam game from another drive, you would likely need to reinstall Steam and all the games from its library.
I was looking at this myself. I have a very fast 8 TB HDD that I run the vast majority of my applications from (including games). My OS is installed on a 2 TB SSD, and some programs are installed there.
I would not have enough space to even move Steam to my SSD, let alone all my applications. I could shell out $200 and get a new 4 TB SSD, but my 8 TB drive is half full. Large SSDs just aren’t available yet and no way am I splitting games between multiple drives.
The early access version of BG3 ran just fine on my HDD. I don’t think it’s necessary at all to move to an SSD. Maybe if I had a bad HDD I’d need to.
You can put Steam directories on all drives if you want, and split the games up however you want. I have 3 SSDs all with a Steam games folder, organized by drive speed I want for each game(one is a fast m2 drive, on is a cheaper m2, and the final one is SATA SSD which is much slower.
That’s incorrect. Whenever you install a game on Steam it should ask you which drive to install it to. Steam doesn’t run your game so it doesn’t matter which drive it’s on; Steam is just the client, and it calls on your game’s executable. Where that executable and the files it references are is what matters.
Hmm… I might just try splitting off BG3 onto my SSD. It ran fine before, but if it ends up giving me faster load times it might be worth it. I can’t do that for every game but I have more than enough room for this.
I just don’t think I ever fiddled with custom installs, Steam likes to do things automatically. I don’t think I really paid attention.
It shouldn’t be anything complex. When you hit “install game” on a game that’s not installed yet, does it not ask you which drive to use? Mine automatically found my SSD when I added it.
So apparently both Steam and my OS is installed on SSD and I don’t quite have the space for BG3. I guess I can try uninstalling other games and see how that goes. But I’m about to run out of space.
Me a couple years ago:
“Man, load times for Total War suck. I’m gonna buy an SSD! 500 GB should do the trick, right? It’s what my current drive has and that’s plenty of space.”
Game devs, also a couple years ago:
“So, we are all in agreement, right? Every new game is gonna be at least 150 GB? Mwahahahaha!!!”
That’s the challenge with drives; space vs performance vs cost. (Oh, and power consumption/heat, but that’s usually not a big deal most of the time.)
Since my SSD is almost entirely my OS and not much else, I have over 1.5 TB free, so I’ll be using that for this.
I just got a new computer and am in the “I haven’t reinstalled a bunch of crap” honeymoon phase where I don’t have to even think about it.
Even so, 150 gb is a faintly ludicrous amount of space no matter how you slice it.
ETA: plop a folder called “steam” anywhere you want and point the install at it. Steam will handle it just fine.
*giggles*
I don’t even have much installed on there. It’s mostly just the OS. I keep all my documents in a cloud. I’m wondering if I should try to install the OS on the HDD instead?
Otherwise I will have no choice but to install BG3 on HDD.
Definitely not. If you have no other choice, install BG3 on the HDD.
Do you have other games you could move to the HDD instead, though?
Relatively speaking, of course. It’s fast for a traditional HDD. It’s like saying I have a fast go kart.
I found the space… by uninstalling BG3 Early Access. 
Perfection!
It’s sort of like talking about Formula 1 cars (M.2 NVMe) vs a Porsche 911 (SATA SSD) and saying you have a very fast bicycle (HDD.)
For a commuter, the bicycle might be even faster. 
Bought the early access on Steam to get the extra DLC. Played about 15 hours and it is fantastic.
I don’t 100% love using WASD for camera controls and mouse to move. I’d change that if I could. Everything else is perfect.
Planning to start with a tempest cleric when the 3rd hits.
You can also control the camera by holding the middle (scroll wheel) button on the mouse. That can zoom, or spin the camera. But some camera controls you need WASD for, true.
I kept finding myself accidentally moving the camera and then having to recenter it. (Home key works for that.)
Mouse to move is standard for this whole genre. If it wasn’t set up like that, it would be pretty weird.