Cannot Figure This Out

[JK_Original]

When Steam is preallocating disk space or another client is updating a game in a similar fashion my computer will go through frequent, periodic lock-ups and then unfreeze. Sometimes a lock-up will lead to a blue screen. I have a Samsung EVO SSD. I've had it a handful of years now and this issue has occurred just as long. Easy fix - Buy a new SSD. Possible fix - Reformat. I'm looking to avoid either if possible.

[crunchyfrog]

Blue screens like this would immediately lead me to suspect that hard drive is dying. Given that it's an older SSD and been used for a few years, and probably for data being removed and moved, it's to be expected.

This is why it's recommended to install your OS only on your SSD - to keep booting and running speeds up, but to avoid having things on there that continually get written, moved or changed as that can shorten the life of the drive.

Of course, the newer the drive, the less this applies as the tech is constantly improving.

So, what to suggest?

as you want to avoid reformatting or buying anew, aI'm guessing your prime concern is losing game saves and game data that you'd need to download again.

For this reason, you are probably best served just moving all your Steam game data (from the steamapps folder) to another hard drive, such as an external hard drive. Even if you have to buy one anew.

Then downlad Steam to that external drive and in the settings, change or add this external drive as a source, and make it default. Steam will either pick up the game data you;ve copied automatically, or try to "download" it (which will result in an abnoramlly fast download speed as in reality it's just checking the game data that's there and not downloading).

This is perhaps the best solution for you, as it not only gives you a solution for getting that data off the problematic drive, and keeping it safe, but it also gives you a base to still play games from until such times as you do replace that hard drive.

[The Giving One]

If it's the same system you have been using for a while, then I would agree with the good crunchyfrog above. BSOD errors are almost always hardware or driver related.

Same system pretty much eliminates drivers, probably, so it must be hardware.

Did you use check disk to scan the drive for issues ?

I would consider backing up any important data that is on that drive now, just in case.

[crunchyfrog]

Originally posted by The Giving One:

If it's the same system you have been using for a while, then I would agree with the good crunchyfrog above. BSOD errors are almost always hardware or driver related.

Same system pretty much eliminates drivers, probably, so it must be hardware.

Did you use check disk to scan the drive for issues ?

I would consider backing up any important data that is on that drive now, just in case.

Really got to underline this last sentence, as it's perhaps the most important thing.

Consider a questionable misbehaving as a sinking ship - it aint a question of if it'll go down but when, so get EVERYTHING you can off it now before it starts corrupting or locking off those sectors.

[JK_Original]

Thanks for the input all. It is true I need to act on preserving the data before its too late. I may have done a disk check in the recent past with no errors found, but perhaps it wasnt deep enough. I do have an external hard drive so I'll store some data on that before overhauling my current PC build.