Disk write error when using external hard drive

[Keagan Beagan]

I just got a 1tb external hard drive to free up space on my laptop and at first i tried just moving the steam files to it and running the games but that didnt work so i deleted all the games off the internal and external hard drive and i sent the default install location to the external hard drive. whenever i try to install a game i gat a disk write error so i formatted it, still got the error, then i took off write protection, still got the same error. this thing is brand new i literally just opened it whats up with this?

[Satoru]

1) Steam DOES NOT like it when its libraries are stored on external removable drives

2) DO NOT install steam itself on an external drive. Steam needs to install a service that is based on teh installation point of hte main exe. This service will fail and do terrible things when it gets the rug pulled out from under it if you disconnect the drive.

Note that if you insist on doing this

1) Install steam itself on the LOCAL drive. This ensures the service is created properly and will not implode if the drive is disconnected

2) Create a steam library on the external drive

3) Make the external drive the 'default' library to install to. This way most games will automaticaly install to the external drive even if you click through the installation of a game.

Note that steam DOES NOT like it if the external drive is disconnected while steam is running. It will detect the library as missing and obliterate the internal mappings that show the game is installed. You can install games onto an external drive, but be mindful sthat steam does not support this and things can and will go wrong if you do (aside from the obvious performance issues with loading games from slower external drives over usb)

[Keagan Beagan]

I actually did all if that but i got it to work by re installing steam thanks though

[Keagan Beagan]

just one more question though. you said id have slower load times but will that effect the gameplay? or will that only effect the speed in which the game initially loads?

[Glimmer]

Originally posted by Weirdal153:

just one more question though. you said id have slower load times but will that effect the gameplay? or will that only effect the speed in which the game initially loads?

It will have an effect anytime it loads from the hard drive. For small games, pretty much just the initial load times. For modern AAA games, any map load.

[Keagan Beagan]

Originally posted by Glimmer:

Originally posted by Weirdal153:

just one more question though. you said id have slower load times but will that effect the gameplay? or will that only effect the speed in which the game initially loads?

It will have an effect anytime it loads from the hard drive. For small games, pretty much just the initial load times. For modern AAA games, any map load.

alright thanks dude. i dont really have much of a choice unfortunately, my laptop hard drive is only 237 gb and it filled up pretty fast so im trying to move all my steam games over.