How to get steam to stop download update in C: drive

[CallMeEthan]

My C: drive is 256Gb ssd that is reserved for OS and some important software only, the game Im trying to update is installed in E: drive with 180Gb of free space. I've even set E: as default library.
For some reason steam keep downloading update in C: drive, the update is only 15Gb but the files on disk is ~81Gb so C: fill up very quickly and slow everything down.

[Elucidator]

I recommend installing steam to e:
and don't have any other library than e:

In your case I also recommend going to your c:/users/[username] directory
and move appdata to e:
and the folders within appdata, move those to e: as well, especially local, roaming and temp. (local low is rarely used, but basically all of those, and appdata itself)
you can do this by right clicking the folder and then selecting properties, and looking at the location tab.

appdata is a hidden folder, so its invisible by default. You need to set folder options to make hidden files and folders visible to change its location.

edit: if possible I recommend getting an extra disk for more space, which can be an SSD or HDD, size doesn't truly matter, but I recommend at least 256GB.
and put Steam on there instead. I suspect your 180GB will be filled very quickly when you start installing games and such.

Appdata tends to fill up quickly as well due to whatever you download, and sites visit and grab or check or whatever. Appadata is an overused folder basically.

[CallMeEthan]

Thanks for the suggestion, I've reinstalled steam on a different drive so now disk and cpu usage isn't at 100% anymore.
Still, steam should let you choose where to download update files.

[DrummerJacob]

I just hope your 2nd drive has the same speed as your main drive. This will affect the gameplay quality alot.

Personally, I accept having less space to play on my .5TB SSD drive as opposed to my slower 2TB HDD. It comes down to me constantly deleting games Im not playing at the moment and installing ones I do. I probably need to defragment my harddrive really bad but I havent noticed any performance issues with it.....yet.

[CallMeEthan]

It's true that hdd isn't as fast as ssd, but it's just a little longer load time, there's no effect on overall experience.
I guess it depend on the game itself. likes 2077 specifically recommend using ssd.

[milordas75]

Originally posted by CallMeEthan:

Thanks for the suggestion, I've reinstalled steam on a different drive so now disk and cpu usage isn't at 100% anymore.
Still, steam should let you choose where to download update files.

Yes Steam at this point is suck. In my case, i cleared place on ssd to update quicker, as always moving game files ~75Gb to non ssd, then updating, then moving again to ssd is just terrible, even small patches ruining time

[Katie]

This thread was quite old before the recent post, so we're locking it to prevent confusion.