Reinstalling Half-Life 2 on a new PC ?

[Werdna007]

I am going to be buying a new PC soon, and I was wondering if anyone could give me the info on how I can reinstall Half-Life 2 on my new PC.

I am going to be reformating my old PC for the wife, so it will not be played at all on the old one. (She's not a games player)

Do I have to uninstall the original game under my steam account first, before reinstalling it on the new one?

Any help would be much appreciated, as there seems to be many bad experiences from people, and different info on the net about this problem - and the members are this forum are so well informed and helpful. :notworthy

In the same idea, can I move my Norton Anti-Virus subscription from the old one to the new one as well ?

Thanks very much in advance.

[Digital]

Either re-download the lot, or back it up.

steam://backup (start -> run)

The backup has a fault, but there's a simple work around.

When restoring it'll ask for a final disk/cd, except you won't have one. simply go into the SteamApps folder (C:\Program Files\Valve\Steam\SteamApps) and rename all the files removing the ~ from the beginning of the file name and the .tmp from the end.

So ~source engine.gcf.tmp becomes source engine.gcf - There's only 10 files for me, but a quick batch file speeds it up.

Once you renamed all the files you can then Cancel the restore, cancelling before renaming will delete the files.

BTW, you'll need the Steam Installer before you can even begin restoring. Small download from Steampowered.com

HTH. :)

[Roy Munson]

Or just copy the Steam apps folder to another location. Then once the new virgin Steam is installed on the new machine, simply replace its Steam Apps folder with the one you kept safe. Steam will no doubt do a bit of updating, but the game data/saves/settings etc. will all be intact.

[Savagexii]

Steam doesn't keep track of where the game is installed i don't think, it just determines what games are available to you once you log in, so if you install steam on your new pc, then log in, it'll allow you to install all of the games you've purchased/downloaded in the past, reguardless if you've already got them all installed on another pc, just so long as you only attempt to log in once at any one time. I havn't done any of this myself so i can't confirm it, but i'm pretty sure thats how it works :)

[Digital]

Or just copy the Steam apps folder to another location. Then once the new virgin Steam is installed on the new machine, simply replace its Steam Apps folder with the one you kept safe. Steam will no doubt do a bit of updating, but the game data/saves/settings etc. will all be intact.

I think it's game content only, settings & saves are lost.

[Whiting]

Moving HL2 from one machine to another is covered in the Steam FAQ...

That'll be here (http://steampowered.custhelp.com/cgi-bin/steampowered.cfg/php/enduser/std_adp.php?p_faqid=231&p_created=1094802822&p_sid=balAr*Dh&p_lva=&p_sp=cF9zcmNoPTEmcF9zb3J0X2J5PSZwX2dyaWRzb3J0PSZwX3Jvd19jbnQ9NDcmcF9wcm9kcz0wJnBfY2F0cz0wJnBfcHY9JnBfY3Y9JnBfc2VhcmNoX3R5cGU9YW5zd2Vycy5zZWFyY2hfbmwmcF9wYWdlPTEmcF9zZWFyY2hfdGV4dD1tb3ZlIGZyb20gZHJpdmU*&p_li=&p_topview=1) then ; I've tried it & it works :thumbs:

[Digital]

Moving HL2 from one machine to another is covered in the Steam FAQ...

That'll be here (http://steampowered.custhelp.com/cgi-bin/steampowered.cfg/php/enduser/std_adp.php?p_faqid=231&p_created=1094802822&p_sid=balAr*Dh&p_lva=&p_sp=cF9zcmNoPTEmcF9zb3J0X2J5PSZwX2dyaWRzb3J0PSZwX3Jvd19jbnQ9NDcmcF9wcm9kcz0wJnBfY2F0cz0wJnBfcHY9JnBfY3Y9JnBfc2VhcmNoX3R5cGU9YW5zd2Vycy5zZWFyY2hfbmwmcF9wYWdlPTEmcF9zZWFyY2hfdGV4dD1tb3ZlIGZyb20gZHJpdmU*&p_li=&p_topview=1) then ; I've tried it & it works :thumbs:

Shame you can't do that with all software, would make life so much easier.

[Werdna007]

Thanks to all the people who answered. :thumbs:

Hopefully I won't have too many problems when the new PC arrives.