Constantly having to verify game files (games don't open until I do)

[Casimiro]

For nearly all of my steam games, after a week or so, I always have to either verify the integrity of their files or just reinstall. Without doing so, the games refuse to open, and the only way I have seen to fix this is verifying the files, where there are always tens (if not hundreds in some cases) of files missing.

For rather large games such as DCS where there are over 200gb of storage, this is extremely tedious and takes multiple hours to complete. I never had to verify my files this often until about a month or so ago, and now I have to do this on a nearly weekly basis for all games. Why do I suddenly have file issues with all my steam games?

I don't believe I have any storage issues, as my C drive have 30gb of storage left out of 232, and my E drive (where my steam games are located) have over a tb left.

[Jaunitta 🌸]

Insure the E drive is always powered on before starting Steam
Always exit friends&Chat first then exit Steam using the Steam top left corner>r/click it exit.
In that order.
When you incorrectly exit Steam, just close it the games on USB may appear as uninstalled and not function ..

[Casimiro]

How do I ensure that the E drive is powered on?

[Jack Schitt]

Questions that will help others help you:

1. Have you recently made any changes at all to the anti-virus program you use?
- Files that are missing might be getting quarantined or blocked.

2. How large is your E:\ in total?
2a. Is it partitioned or just one big giant amount of space?
- A large sized storage space is great to have but if it's not partitioned in to smaller drives that could also be why some files are missing due to how hard drives place file fragments (all over the place) = it's easier to organize and place things closer to each other in a smaller space, easier to lose things in a large, open space.

3. Have you and do you do maintenance? Defrag, clean up old files and files you don't want or use or need off your drives, empty the recycle bin, often?
- The more free space there is on a drive the better defrag will organize it.
- If you have files in the recycle bin the space where they were before they were deleted is still reserved. You might have space being used by files in the bin.
- Windows Defrag works just fine but is far from good because it doesn't have features that show us what the heck is going on. Suggestion: use CC cleaner's "Defraggler", Defraggler is its own stand-alone program. CC Clearner isn't needed and I don't reccommend it to do disk cleanup or clean the registry but it's your choice if you want to.


4. "It takes hours": How's your internet connection speed / quality?
speedtest.net to test it.
- A poor internet connection speed and quality (which could be due to Steam Server Traffic, nothing anyone can do about that) might also be the cause of missing files.


Suggestion, try this with one game:

I have a horrible internet connection speed and quality (Verizon DSL). I prevent having to download my games again by backing them up into a compressed archive (zip, 7z) after they download and install and I run them once. This way if something screws up I have a backup of the vanilla installation I can plop in to replace any wonky or missing files.

When using the backup when we click on the game to launch it a quick verification process proving we own it runs and it's good to go. It's substantially faster than downloading and re-installing again.

[Casimiro]

1) I have undergone anti-virus updates, although I do not know how to check whether any files are being quarantined or blocked.
2) My E drive is in total 2tb large, and my amount of partitions (folder count to get to the game itself) has not been altered in any way, so I am assuming that the amount of partitions in the drive is sufficient.
3) I do ensure that my files are organized (especially for my other, smaller drive), and there are no files in my recycling bin. I have never used Windows Defrag, and I'm unsure what it is/whether it will help, so that may be something I could use.
4) When I say it takes hours, I mean that due to the sheer size of the games I am verifying the files of (hundreds of gb) it usually takes over an hour. For smaller games, it is certainly quicker (less than 10min for games in single digit gb size) but the need to constantly verify my files does add up in terms of time.

[crunchyfrog]

Originally posted by Casimiro:

How do I ensure that the E drive is powered on?

Simple - and this goes for ANY external hard drive.

Power savings settings under Windows. (Easiest way to get there is simply type in the windows search box at the bottom of your taskbar "power savings"). It should be under the "power and Sleep" section.

Look across to the right hand side of the screen and see that bit that says "additional power settings"? Click on that and it'll bring up a window to set how all the power savings funtion on your computer.

You can fine tune to your hearts desire, but if you're gaming, you should really have everything tweaked to full. The particular section you're looking for though, is the botttom option on the left - "change when the computer sleeps". Click on that, and then click on "change advanced power settings".

Now you're at the right set of options. Choose to set the hard disk to never sleep, and for external USB drives, make sure to choose the USB section and make them never sleep too.

So, as long as you have your PC on, it should work OK now.

One tip for the future though - if you're using external hard drives ALWAYS make sure you have them attached and running BEFORE you start Steam. They should be trouble free then.

[Jack Schitt]

1. Check the website for your anti-virus or use a search engine to find out how to check it's quarantine. Additionally it's a good idea to tell our security programs to exclude scanning our game files. It's happened often that an anti-virus caused a game not to work.

2. Folders are not partitions, Drives (C:\ , E:\) are drives. 2tb isn't too bad but it might help to create 250 to 500gb sized partitions. It could be a night to day difference, it might not be much difference but it will make a difference. It will make a difference when defragging. If you look in to defraggler[www.ccleaner.com] it's features include being able to defrag a single file, or a specific folder instead of an entire drive.

3. If you've never defragged your storage spaces that could possibly be the problem. You can access windows defrag from the start menu by just typing 'defrag' after making the start menu appear. Several options will show up in the search when you do that, either one will work. The one that's a command is the one I would personally use if I didn't have and use defraggler.

Do try defragging your drives. Regardless of whether we're having issues or not it's something we should all do at least once in a while to maintain our computer's health.

[Casimiro]

Ok, I've made a new partition in the drive where my steam games are located, and well as changed my power settings to the correct settings. I've also checked my anti-virus to see how they quarantine and whether this could have an impact on my game files, and it seems to not be an issue. Now I'll just have to wait and see if these have helped. Thanks for your help!

[Jack Schitt]

I hope it does help.

[AwesomeSause]

I have a similar problem, I downloaded WeMod on my pc and it didn't work so I undownloaded it but then after that, I always have to manually verify all my steam games everytime I want to play. I didn't have to do it before I downloaded WeMod, so maybe it messed steam up?

[crunchyfrog]

Originally posted by AwesomeSause:

I have a similar problem, I downloaded WeMod on my pc and it didn't work so I undownloaded it but then after that, I always have to manually verify all my steam games everytime I want to play. I didn't have to do it before I downloaded WeMod, so maybe it messed steam up?

It shouldn't in any way as it has nothing to do with the files in Steam. It doesn't touch them.

It's most likely you had some internet outage or a steam update around the same time that messed things up.

In any case, you should do the usual fix all and better still don't hijack posts and make your own about a sidfferent topic.

[Jack Schitt]

Originally posted by AwesomeSause:

I have a similar problem, I downloaded WeMod on my pc and it didn't work so I undownloaded it but then after that, I always have to manually verify all my steam games everytime I want to play. I didn't have to do it before I downloaded WeMod, so maybe it messed steam up?

What do you mean you undownloaded it? That's not a compter term, really. We don't all have to be computer savvy experts. Computer term knowledge isn't required to game on a pc. Not required but it's helpful to know.

Download: copying data (files) from a remote location like a website to local storage (your pc).

Local: the pc we're using.

Remote: a computer or file(s) we accesss online that are local to a different computer at another physical location.

Install: Placing software on our local pc to run that software.

Software: a game, ms word, adobe photoshop CC, Gimp inage editor, the anti-virus we have and use, applications like image editors. Videos and images are not software they are files (data).

Data: Content. Files.

Uninstall: removing software so it doesn't and can't run.

Delete: Removing data from storage; getting rid of a file. Deleting and uninstalling aren't the same thing.

Deleting an installation file we downloaded that installed a program (WeMod in your case) doesn't stop the program it installed from running. We have to click start and (easiest way to get there is) type "uninstall", open the Remove/Uninstall Apps and Features application, select the software from the list, click uninstall and let the uninstall process run.

If you only deleted a file or files WeMod can still run and operate. If you used it and didn't tell it to stop doing what it does or uninstall it it can still be changing or adding game files.

The integrity validation checks a game's default files with the files we have for that game. If the files we have are different it will download and install the default (original, unchanged) files.
If WeMod is still on your pc, running, and changing files - because you told it to and haven't told it to stop using edited files, you don't have the default files...the mod WeMod is throwing in there doesn't work (as you said) for whatever reason. The validation process sees those files as...not the default files...so it fixes them by installing the default files.

That's very possibly what's going on in your case, Sauce.
The solution is either opening WeMod and telling it not to do whatever it's doing to that game or uninstall WeMod as I tried to explain above.

[crunchyfrog]

Originally posted by Jack Schitt:

Originally posted by AwesomeSause:

I have a similar problem, I downloaded WeMod on my pc and it didn't work so I undownloaded it but then after that, I always have to manually verify all my steam games everytime I want to play. I didn't have to do it before I downloaded WeMod, so maybe it messed steam up?

What do you mean you undownloaded it? That's not a compter term, really. We don't all have to be computer savvy experts. Computer term knowledge isn't required to game on a pc. Not required but it's helpful to know.

Download: copying data (files) from a remote location like a website to local storage (your pc).

Local: the pc we're using.

Remote: a computer or file(s) we accesss online that are local to a different computer at another physical location.

Install: Placing software on our local pc to run that software.

Software: a game, ms word, adobe photoshop CC, Gimp inage editor, the anti-virus we have and use, applications like image editors. Videos and images are not software they are files (data).

Data: Content. Files.

Uninstall: removing software so it doesn't and can't run.

Delete: Removing data from storage; getting rid of a file. Deleting and uninstalling aren't the same thing.

Deleting an installation file we downloaded that installed a program (WeMod in your case) doesn't stop the program it installed from running. We have to click start and (easiest way to get there is) type "uninstall", open the Remove/Uninstall Apps and Features application, select the software from the list, click uninstall and let the uninstall process run.

If you only deleted a file or files WeMod can still run and operate. If you used it and didn't tell it to stop doing what it does or uninstall it it can still be changing or adding game files.

The integrity validation checks a game's default files with the files we have for that game. If the files we have are different it will download and install the default (original, unchanged) files.
If WeMod is still on your pc, running, and changing files - because you told it to and haven't told it to stop using edited files, you don't have the default files...the mod WeMod is throwing in there doesn't work (as you said) for whatever reason. The validation process sees those files as...not the default files...so it fixes them by installing the default files.

That's very possibly what's going on in your case, Sauce.
The solution is either opening WeMod and telling it not to do whatever it's doing to that game or uninstall WeMod as I tried to explain above.

You're right, except to say WeMod is a cheat system.

It only adds cheats to a game once it boots it itself. I'm not saying it cannot leave residual stuff open, but I'd be surprised.

Of course, your point is a good one nonetheless because this matter is easily tested. Uninstalling ir properly and then checking again easily gives the answer.

[Jack Schitt]

WeMod is advertized as a game modifier. Modifications are changes to files. Cheats are modifications (changes / edits) to files. Of course it modifies files when it's launched! That's what it does.
That's what cheats are, edits to files (modifications).
The only difference, really, between a cheat and a mod is which word people choose to call it. The process is the same.

Mods cause games to not run too happens all the time.

If WeMod is running there's the cause of not-default files causing the game not to rub and why verifying corrects it.

[crunchyfrog]

Originally posted by Jack Schitt:

WeMod is advertized as a game modifier. Modifications are changes to files. Cheats are modifications (changes / edits) to files. Of course it modifies files when it's launched! That's what it does.
That's what cheats are, edits to files (modifications).
The only difference, really, between a cheat and a mod is which word people choose to call it. The process is the same.

Mods cause games to not run too happens all the time.

If WeMod is running there's the cause of not-default files causing the game not to rub and why verifying corrects it.

I wasn't necessarily disagreeing with you, just explaining what it is intended for.

[Jack Schitt]

Thanks for the info. I didn't visit any of the sites for it I only read the breifing text in search results when I looked to see what it was and did.