RDR2 External Install Drive Corrupted: Check Story Mode Saves Before Recovering Game Files
Check the Story Mode save before trying to recover the entire game installation. In this Red Dead Redemption 2 recovery question on Reddit, the game was installed on an external drive that later became corrupted. DMDE can see files, and the user is deciding whether to restore the whole installation into Steam or reinstall the game and recover only the save. Those are different things: the external game's installation directory is not necessarily where story progress was stored.
Locate the Story Mode Save on the Main PC First
Rockstar's official RDR2 clean-install instructions begin by backing up Story Mode saves and identify the default save area under C:\Users\<username>\Documents\Rockstar Games\Red Dead Redemption 2. On a typical PC, look inside the Profiles subfolder and back up the entire profile folder to a separate healthy location before launching or reinstalling the game. If Documents was redirected to another drive, check that actual location instead.
Check whether an existing Rockstar launcher or Steam cloud copy is associated with this account, without accepting a conflict resolution that might replace a good save with a blank one. Steam's cloud-save guidance notes that availability and conflict handling depend on the game and its configuration; do not assume the cloud contains your latest progress without checking.
What If DMDE Only Finds the RDR2 Game Folder?
Choose the Smallest Necessary Recovery
- The Story Mode save is safe on the main PC or in a verified backup: reinstall RDR2 through the official launcher on a healthy drive. There is no reason to reconstruct gigabytes of damaged game binaries merely to preserve progress.
- The saved games were deliberately stored on the corrupted external drive: preserve that drive or image if stable, use DMDE to recover the specific profile/save data to a different physical drive, and inspect recovered file sizes before restoring them to the game.
- The external drive freezes or disconnects: stop repeat scans. The next decision concerns imaging or professional help, not copying a possibly incomplete installation folder into Steam.
Recoverit Hard Drive Recovery is an optional alternative for actually missing local saves on a stable, detected drive. It cannot recreate a file whose data has been overwritten or ensure that damaged game binaries will launch. Protect and verify the save first, then reinstall the game if needed.