changing default save location

As the title of this hints at I have a potentially stupid question. As it sits right now the default location for the game's save files such as worlds is located in the Roaming AppData folder for the computer's user. Right now I'm running my windows from a 225gb SSD and it's starting to get a little more full than I would like. So at the moment I have to shift some of my heftier worlds to an external drive or so on which gets tedious when switching between worlds. Eventually I plan to upgrade my drives so this isn't an issue, but in the mean time is there a means of switching the default save location to a drive with more space?

 

Yes there is

Rename or temporarily move the existing save folder so it no longer exists in it's normal place C:\Users\<username>\AppData\Roaming\SpaceEngineers

Open a Command Prompt window running as Administrator.

Type in the following command, changing the directory names as appropriate (enclosing the path names in double quote marks if they contain any spaces)

mklink /J C:\Users\<username>\AppData\Roaming\SpaceEngineers\Saves <disk>:\<new savegame folder>

(e.g. mklink /J C:\Users\Rox\AppData\Roaming\SpaceEngineers\Saves "M:\space engineers saves" )

This creates a directory junction ( a hard link in Unix terminology) in the place where the game expects the directory, pointing to your new location.

Then start the game, confirming it has worked by the fact there are no saves present. You can then move the existing saves you relocated in the first step into the correct place, the game does not need to restart to find them, only to exit and re-enter the 'load game' menu.

Disclaimer: The above directory names assume normal default installations of Windows, Steam and Space Engineers, and may need changing to reflect your individual settings.

Further background information on symbolic directory links: https://www.howtogeek.com/howto/16226/complete-guide-to-symbolic-links-symlinks-on-windows-or-linux/

 

There is a much easier way. Simply start the game with the argument -AppData pathToWhereIWantTheSaves. No need to mess around with hardlinks.

You can set that by right-clicking the game in steam, press Properties, make sure you're on the General tab then click Launch Options.

 

exactly as malware as stated. I keep Winblows on one ssd drive, steam games on another, and a few games as well as AppData saves on another SSD.

 

The solution provided by Roxette (mklink /j ...) works also with the whole SpaceEngineers folder. Had already 16GB in this folder, 6 GB thereof in "Saves", 7GB in "Mods".

Does the "-AppData" option store the whole SpaceEngineers folder in this path or only the saves ?

 

Everything.

 

Tried it. Doesn't work. Neither "-AppData <SEdir>" nor "/AppData <SEdir>". Back to the hardlink...

 

Not only have I been using it for years, I made the function... It works just fine with no trouble what so ever. Just straight forward as I said. Remember to quote the path if there's spaces in it, as is usual on command lines.