I have copied the gog games folder to a backup drive and I want to copy them onto my new computer when I get it.

I was just wondering how hard it would be to have gog reinstall the games after it finds the game folder on the new PC?

I don't want to download a few hundred GB of games. In fact it's nearly 600+ GB.

GOG is a website, and can't install anything. I guess you are talking about Galaxy?

The "GOG Games" folder is strictly for installed games on your current machine and is not suitable for backup. You may be successful backing up some games that way, but your leverage will vary greatly. Game installers do more than just copy binaries in that folder. They also install other dependencies on your computer.

If you get a new computer, you copy the offline installers (the downloaded files you used to install the games in the first place) of whatever games you want to install on the new computer and reinstall the game there.

Anyways, its my experience with the offline installers. For games installed via GOG Galaxy, I've never tried it, but my understanding is that they aren't meant for backup.

Trivial, if you have the offline installers in a stable environs.

Installer files
If you have the installer files and its patches - just use those to re-install the game properly. Use those; that should be enough and install all dependencies needed.

Personally, I say - always grab those EXE and BIN game-installer files...so the game installs its extra dependency files such as any MS run-times, DX version, PhysX, and/or any other junk you might need to for running said game.

Copying a Game-Folder As Is...
If you have the game-folder only - just copy & paste the game-folder as is to your drive that you're throwing games onto to run them. Boot the EXE and see if it goes/works/runs with all DLC's/expansions/etc. Test it all, see if it works.

Now, if there's issues w/ the game running, DLC's not working, whatever from doing the so-called "install" this way - if you're okay w/ using Galaxy, you can install Galaxy and use that to verify files and whatnot, to make it reinstall and/or update wherever necessary.

Galaxy
Also, you can always use Galaxy and download & install games all in one clip too, if you so feel like it. Up to you, but...I usually use the OG game-installers myself & patches myself. Then, if it needs any updating and there's files out there that's newer than the OG game-installers and patch-installers - then I use Galaxy. Especially for newer titles & more modern titles, as often those are still getting updates & are often getting updated more than say old games.

If you are talking about moving the folder with the executables to a new machine... unless you want to dabble with the dark arts of editing the registry keys in regedit (which I strongly caution against), it's not really feasible.

Some old games didn't actually care for an install, so you could just plop them anywhere and it would start (especially if cracked), but a proper installation ignores such fanciful wishes and just refuses to acknowledge it's existence.

Well, it depends.

If you are using offline installers:

Some games will work flawless, some will cause errors or saves dissapearing as they put adnotations to the computer registry and the new computer don't have them, so you will be forced to download/use if you still have it offline installer and reinstall the games.
Mainly it is trial and error thing.

If you are using Galaxy:

It should notice all your games and check structural integrity and if some files were missing, it would download them including saves if you had them in the cloud,

Yeah, I planned on installing Galaxy and pointing it to the folder I will have copied to the new drive. I was then planning on having Galaxy verify the data. I was wondering if it would verify the games data and reinstall direct x and other components. I'm sorry I wasn't more clear about what I was doing.

According to Dell, I won't see my PC until mid May, so I'm not in a hurry, but the backup drive is slow...That's what I get with a USB transfer...

Thanks everyone for the feedback...

Yes, that should work. If it doesn't auto-detect the games for whatever reason there is a fallback option which lets you manually point Galaxy at the folder for a particular game and say "this game is here" at which point it'll go "Oh yeah, so it is!".

The issue is this weird concept in windows called "The Registry." Any games that use it that expect values from the installer there will not find them there, and this could be bad. I don't know how prevalent this is on games, here, though, because i try avoid diving into that mess. I would hope most devs have learned their lessons over the years and avoided it like the plague, but I highly doubt it.

The thing, too, is that most gog games do not store their saves where you tell it to install, either. Ideally, you should have backup installers, and manual migration of any game saves you wish to keep.

The White Bird is back! ^ :D
What are you talking about?
The white bird! White bird! Look! White bird! It is like a bluebird but it`s white. :D Whitebird!

Games work without Galaxy, I have uninstalled the client many times games still work, upgraded the system, pointed to the games folder, games still work. Drm-free Baby! and Bird is back!

For offline installers,...just keep`em :)

About game-saves - I usually check the PC Gaming Wiki, which might tell you where they are located at for different versions.

Also, I use app's like GameSave Mgr., which might know where saves for certain games and even other specific versions are located at (if they ain't always in the same location for every version).

Depends really.

If you're using Galaxy then all you need to do is to add the main game folder to Galaxy and it will fix it for you. Or you can use the offline installers and take back up of them.

Either way, most games are relatively portable. The games I have on GOG I just run them without installing them again on the new machine as I reformat pretty often. Withcer 3 is a game I used Galaxy to download (to properly get the latest version) and I run it without Galaxy on a new computer. Though, depends on the game and most of the time you only need to make sure Directx and Visual C++ and other libraries are installed, naturally.

If you're looking for a good program to auto-backup your saves then look no further (never trust the cloud):
https://mikemaximus.github.io/gbm-web/