Blizzard games like World of Warcraft, Call of Duty Modern Warfare, Cold War, Vanguard, and the popular Call of Duty Warzone have excellent graphics. But these are extremely large games, usually requiring over 100 GB of storage space. If you are running out of storage space on your primary drive, here is how to move Blizzard games to another drive without reinstallation.
Why Move Blizzard Games to Another Drive?
The Battle.net client, by default, installs all the games in your Windows installation directory. Although you can change the directory in the settings and try to reinstall the game, having to download over 100 GBs of data again is no fun—especially if you have a measured internet connection.
Some Blizzard games can take up to 130 GBs of space on your hard drive. This can become an issue if your primary SSD has limited storage space.
Also, if you have upgraded to an SSD, moving games from traditional hard drives to faster storage can help you reduce the loading time.
Fortunately, Blizzard allows you to change the game directory for new installation and move existing games to a new directory with little hassle. Here’s how to do it.
What Blizzard Games Can I Move to Another Directory Without Reinstallation?
You can move almost all the Blizzard and Activision games installed through the Battle.net client. Some of the titles include:
Activision Games:
- Call of Duty: VANGUARD
- Call of Duty: Warzone
- Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War
- Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2
- Call of Duty: Black Ops 4
Blizzard Games:
- Crash Bandicoot 4
- World of Warcraft
- Hearthstone
- Diablo II: Resurrected
- World of Warcraft Classic
- Overwatch
- Diablo III
- Warcraft III
- StarCraft II
- Heroes of the Storm
- StarCraft
How to Move Blizzard Games Manually to Another Drive
You can manually copy and move the Blizzard game files to a new drive and then change the game location in the Battle.net game settings. Although this method allows you to move most of the files, you may still have to download a few gigabytes of the latest patches to get going.
To move Blizzard games to another drive:
- Launch Battle.net application on your PC.
- Select the game you want to move. For example, open the Warzone tab if you want to move files for Call of Duty Warzone.
- Next, click the Gear icon next to the Play button.
- Select the Show in Explorer option. This will open your game folder in Windows File Explorer.
- Right-click on the Call of Duty Modern Warfare folder and select Copy.
- Create a new folder in another directory where you would like to move your Blizzard game and paste the copied content. Depending on the size of the game, the copying process may take a few minutes to a few hours. Note down the new directory path once you have copied the game files.
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In the Battle.net app, click the Gear icon again and select Game Settings from the context menu.
- In the Game Settings section for your game, click on the Use a Different Folder button.
- Next, navigate to your newly created directory with the game files.
- Select the game folder and click Select Folder.
- Click Done to save the changes.
That’s it. You may see a Reclaiming Disk Space process, so wait till it finishes. Then, click the Update button to download and install pending updates for the game.
Before you decide to delete the old copy, make sure the game recognizes the new copy, and you can play it with no issues.
How to Change Blizzard Games’ (Battle.net) Default Installation Directory
If you don’t want to install all Blizzard games in your primary directory, you can change the default installation location in the settings.
This is useful if you have a dedicated drive or partition for your games. It can also save you the hassle of having to move game files manually after installation.
To change Battle.net default installation directory:
- Launch Battle.net and click the Menu icon (Battle.net logo on top left corner).
- Select Settings.
- In the Settings window, open the Downloads tab from the left pane.
- Under Game Installation, click the Change button for Default Installation Directory.
- Choose your new drive/partition/folder and click Select Folder.
- Click Done to save the changes. Once completed, Battle.net will download and install all future games to the new installation directory.
Move Blizzard Games to Another Drive Without Reinstalling
Blizzard games like Call of Duty Warzone/Cold War/Modern Warfare, and World of Warcraft, are huge and can eat up your primary drive in no time. Moving Blizzard games to an SSD or traditional hard disk without downloading them all again can save you precious storage space and bandwidth.
Additionally, change the default installation directory for the Blizzard games to avoid the trouble of moving games manually after installation. Now all you need to worry about is whether your PC can play the latest games!
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