What do you back up before replacing a gaming PC drive?

[Pingu]

I’m moving my main drive to a larger SSD and wondered what other PC gamers make sure to save before reinstalling or cloning. Steam cloud saves cover a lot for me, but I’m not sure about local saves, mods, controller profiles, and launcher settings. Do you rely on cloud sync, make a manual backup, or just clone the whole drive? Any easy-to-miss game data worth checking?

 

[robrock]

Hi, I usually back up local save files, settings, and mod folders, while using Steam Cloud as an additional safety measure. It’s also worth checking AppData, Documents, and individual game folders, as some saves and configuration files may be stored there and not synced to the cloud. If possible, cloning the entire drive before the migration is the easiest way to make sure nothing gets accidentally lost.d

 

[CuriousBadger]

I’d also export or note anything tied to the launchers themselves: Steam library locations, custom launch options, controller layouts, and installed mod managers such as Vortex or Mod Organizer 2. Some games keep saves under Documents\My Games, %AppData%, %LocalAppData%, or their own installation directory, so searching for folders named after the game is worthwhile. Don’t forget screenshots, reshade presets, keybinds, and emulator memory cards if you use them.

A full-disk clone is safest if the new SSD is compatible and you have enough space, but I’d still copy important saves to a separate external drive. Cloud sync can occasionally overwrite newer files or fail silently, so I usually verify the backup by opening a few files and checking the save timestamps before wiping the old drive.