How to force steam to detect existing files without meeting space requirements ?

[Mada]

Hello, my computer has been through trouble recently and I lost my 1TB HD, but still have my SSD and all my backup files on an external HD.

The problem I have is that I copied the Witcher 3 files (common files, 50GB) onto my SSD, leaving it with only 10GB free space left. The issue here is that I can't make steam detect the game, because it wants to download it before discovering the files.

My internet connection is pretty bad so I don't want to wait 1 to 2 days for the download to complete, that's why I copied the files directly on the SSD. Anyone knows how can I force steam to recognize the files without going through the usual "install detect" ? Then again if you didn't understand I don't have enough free space so steam won't even try to detect the files on my C:\ drive, so moving the files to another folder won't help much.

Thanks for helping guys

[Mada]

PS : I know I can launch the game without steam but I want to be able to use the cloud and get the successes :)

[76561198218426745]

Copy the appmanifest_292030.acf file from the steamapps folder on your HDD to the steamapps folder on the SSD.

[Mada]

I wanted to do that but my HDD is deader than dead, I couldn't recover its files (I'm glad I already had a backup on my external HDD, but I didn't copied the appmanifest) :(

[76561198218426745]

This may or may not work. Hold down the Windows key and press R, or open the Start menu and choose "Run". In the dialog box, type:

steam://validate/292030

And press enter.

[Mada]

Do you know if I have to create a .acp for that to work ?

[76561198218426745]

You should not need to. If the process works as I think it will, Steam will detect the existing files, create the .acf file, and the game will show as installed.

[Mada]

It doesn't seem to work, it displays "unknow" and it is stuck on 0% :(

I tried to launch game at the same time, create the .acp file, no results.

[76561198218426745]

So I tested this two ways. The first thing I did was delete the .acf file for one of my installed games, and then verified it. Steam did what I expected, checking the existing files and creating the .acf file that was missing. Then I tried it on a game I did not have installed, and Steam gave the same message you had (validating unknown file), and wouldn't verify.

Are you sure you have the files put in the correct folder? And is that folder the default library folder?

[Mada]

Yup my files are in the "C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\common\Witcher 3" directory. I guess there's nothing I can really do about that, I'll just play the game from the in-files launcher, at least I still have my saves :)


Thank you for this kind help dude, but I suppose Steam didn't think about this issue (usually disk space isn't really a problem for anyone so I can't blame them)

[76561198218426745]

Not to be a pain, but I believe Witcher 3 actually installs to

C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\common\The Witcher 3

Which may explain why Steam is not detecting the files.

[Mada]

Yes you're right I probably renamed the folder when moving to the ext HDD (A bad habit I have).

I renamed the folder in the common files directory on my C: disk but it doesn't change anything about your abovementionned solutions :(