Why is steam preallocating 30gb (the size of the game) for a 4gb update?

[Can]

Not only that but the download is constantly stopping and starting, moving slow etc. I know it's an old problem, but I've not seen a guaranteed fix. I've tried the usual, clearing cache, changing download region, capping speed, disabling DiagTrack etc, nothing.

I don't get this anywhere else, why does Steam's download system suck massive balls?

[cSg|mc-Hotsauce]

Sometimes patches update huge core files and needs to allocate said files to update.

[Spawn of Totoro]

It is the way the developer chooses to patch the game.

Path of Exiles, for example, takes forever to patch as it keeps most of the game in a single file. It then has to decompile the entire file, patch, then recompile it.

It isn't Steam that causes the issue.

As for the download starting and stopping, that is likely a local issue or one with the ISP or somewhere along the connection. I suggest trying different regions as that can sometimes fix the issue.

[Nx Machina]

Because the game needs to update and replace files etc.

Because the download stops and starts when disk writing happens.

And finally Steam does not control how a game is structured nor how it actually needs to patch, that is on the developers of the game who made it.

[GunsForBucks]

With payday 2 it was bad as well. It would download a part then it would unpack and install it, then download another bit. Check your disk activity when the downloading parts stop.

[J4MESOX4D]

Originally posted by Can:

I don't get this anywhere else, why does Steam's download system suck massive balls?

Nothing to do with Steam. Sometimes an update may only be a mere 100mb but it may require an entire rewrite of the core file directory resulting in a download of many gigabytes. Just look at Modern Warfare on Battlenet - simple playlist updates with a few tweaks taking in excess of 12gb when it's only 15mb of info that could be written server-side.

It always depends on the developer or game.

[Getty]

that's how steam does the patching. if a file needs patching it makes a copy of it, patches it, moves it back. if that file is 30gb and the patch is 1mb then yeah it copies 30gb for 1mb patch

[Pottuloota]

I just had that same problem when updating a game, it started and then stopped. Also my download speed is 300 KB/s instead of about 6-8 Mbp/s and it started today.

[VaLiuM]

There are different ways for patching. Most common:

1. Downloading the updated files as is (bigger but may be faster in some cases).

2. Or Downloading only a small diff patch (smaller but may take longer due to the patching process) that contains only the difference of old and new files data to be written.

What actually makes it take a while is allocating the hard disk space, unpacking them files to be patched, actually patching them and then repacking them and replacing the old files.

[Reborn]

Originally posted by Can:

Not only that but the download is constantly stopping and starting, moving slow etc. I know it's an old problem, but I've not seen a guaranteed fix. I've tried the usual, clearing cache, changing download region, capping speed, disabling DiagTrack etc, nothing.

I don't get this anywhere else, why does Steam's download system suck massive balls?

the huge problem is that they don't allow the patching if the game + game's download files for patch are bigger than the free space on disk.

the only solution i found was to install the game to old hard disk (by creating a new steam game library on the old but big hard disk) and create a hard link that points to the ssd disk after the installation of the game with gamelink [gamelink.gr] a free GUI app for mklink.exe, an embedded windows command line program.

with this trick download manager allowed me to finish the patching of pubg because it things the game is on the old hard disk that have plenty free space for the downloaded file and not on the ssd that has little free space and actually is the game folder because i moved it there with the gamelink program.

yes i know the procedure confuses a lot, but if you understand what the command program is doing with gamelink is much easier than using the command line every time.