Steamapps folder disappeared -- All games gone but still in hard drive

[Rainbow Goblin]

Heya. So, today I bumped into a weird issue.

I went to launch I game I knew I had installed, but steam showed it wasn't. I went to check the steamapps folder -- but found it gone completely!

Yet I knew the games were still on my drive because of the space left on it. But the folder was gone (it wasn't hidden), and I couldn't uninstall the games because the folder didn't exist, so I was left with 300gigs of gamedata that was completely unaccessable. I had to format the whole drive.

Anyone have anything like this happen, what could be the cause?

[Cathulhu]

https://support.steampowered.com/kb_article.php?ref=8379-RYIP-2998&l=
Usually, not properly closing Steam.
Formatting is usually not needed.

[Rainbow Goblin]

Originally posted by Cathulhu:

https://support.steampowered.com/kb_article.php?ref=8379-RYIP-2998&l=
Usually, not properly closing Steam.
Formatting is usually not needed.

I tried to do all that. I couldn't select the install folder for steam because it was missing completely, steam didn't recognize it. Reinstalling games didn't do it either.

I don't believe to have forced a shutdown that could've caused it.

[Rainbow Goblin]

A bit more context, it was only the steam folder on E: drive, I also have C: and D: drives, those were fine. And the only affected file on E: was the steamapps folder, the steam folder itself and workshop folder were still there.

When I tried to reinstall the games, I selected the E: drive install directory still saved on steam (but showing up empty) it said the folder already had the steamapps folder -- yet it didn't show up on file manager, nor did steam recognize it -- steam simply overwrote it and created a new one.

[PGadow]

Originally posted by Lord Milton:

A bit more context, it was only the steam folder on E: drive, I also have C: and D: drives, those were fine. And the only affected file on E: was the steamapps folder, the steam folder itself and workshop folder were still there.

When I tried to reinstall the games, I selected the E: drive install directory still saved on steam (but showing up empty) it said the folder already had the steamapps folder -- yet it didn't show up on file manager, nor did steam recognize it -- steam simply overwrote it and created a new one.

At a guess, it sounds like a failure in the E: drive, with part of where Windows keeps track of what is on the drive has gotten corrupted. It might be worth running CHKDSK to see if you can fix the problem before it gets worse.

[Rainbow Goblin]

Originally posted by PGadow:

Originally posted by Lord Milton:

A bit more context, it was only the steam folder on E: drive, I also have C: and D: drives, those were fine. And the only affected file on E: was the steamapps folder, the steam folder itself and workshop folder were still there.

When I tried to reinstall the games, I selected the E: drive install directory still saved on steam (but showing up empty) it said the folder already had the steamapps folder -- yet it didn't show up on file manager, nor did steam recognize it -- steam simply overwrote it and created a new one.

At a guess, it sounds like a failure in the E: drive, with part of where Windows keeps track of what is on the drive has gotten corrupted. It might be worth running CHKDSK to see if you can fix the problem before it gets worse.

CHKDSK doesn't find anything, an also, I had a ton of other files on it too and the steamapps folder was the only thing that had an issue.

[crunchyfrog]

I've seen this myself a couple of times as I run several drives including USB drives for Steam.

For whatever reason, it will just not see one drive. I had it a few weeks ago and it was literally amid it running. I woke up around 2pm, turned on my laptop, played a couple of games, watched some Youtube videos, came back to Steam and found some games missing just of their own accord. No shutdown, anything.

How to fix it?

For me, it was a case of simply rebooting windows and unplugging the drives. Start Windows and before you start Steam plug the drives in, then start steam. It should pick things up properly then.

I have no idea why it happened, but PGadow is correct in that you would keep an eye on this in the future, because if it starts to happen more frequenetly it can be indicating that hard drive is on its way out.


Oh and also if it still doesn't pop up under Steam Settings > Downloads > Add library folder, then reboot it all again and unplug/replug the hard drive as stated. It should eventually do it.