Mounting a persistent drive for Steam games

popey · January 17, 2025, 3:45pm

Welcome! Great question!

Here’s a general purpose guide to do this, which should be useful for you, and others.

Adding a disk for Steam Game storage

Find the partition name:
```
lsblk
# or
sudo fdisk -l
```
The new disk will likely show up as /dev/sdX (where X is a letter like b, c, etc.), or /dev/nvmeX for more modern disks.

Use the letter or number in the steps below, e.g. replace /dev/sdX with /dev/sdf or replace /dev/nvmeX with /dev/nvme5 or whatever you found in this step.

Format with ext4:

sudo mkfs.ext4 /dev/sdX1  # if it's the first partition

Create mount point:
```
sudo mkdir /mnt/games
```
Test mount:
```
sudo mount /dev/sdX1 /mnt/games
```
Add to /etc/fstab by adding a line like:

Edit with sudo nano /etc/fstab.

/dev/sdX1    /mnt/games    ext4    defaults    0    2

(Using UUID instead of /dev/sdX1 is more robust - can get it with blkid)

Test fstab:
```
sudo umount /mnt/games
sudo mount -a
```
Set up permissions:
```
sudo chown $USER:$USER /mnt/games
```
If you’re using the steam snap, grant access to external drives
```
sudo snap connect steam:removable-media
```
In Steam: Settings → Downloads → Steam Library Folders → Add Library Folder → select /mnt/games
For existing games: Right click game → Properties → Local Files → Move Install Folder

This is a common setup I’ve used personally. The main cautions are making absolutely sure you’re formatting the correct drive, and backing up the fstab before editing it.