"Reserving Space" on External SSD taking forever?

[Chaosolous]

When I download games to my external SSD they take forever when the download first begins and is in the "Reserving Space" phase. When I install games to my internal drive, this goes extremely fast (takes maybe one minute max no matter the game size) however, when I install games to the external drive this takes forever, like one to two minutes per GB of the game.
Is there something that I am missing?

Details: CPU i5 11400F, External SSD is 2TB SanDisk Extreme 55AE SCSI connected through USB-C Port.

EDIT: January 4th, '23: SOLUTION

Formatting the drive to NTFS fixed the issue.

[Chaosolous]

Does anyone else at least have this issue, even if there's no solution? Am I alone and insane? What is reality anyway, I mean. Really. Maybe the problem is just in my mind. Does a problem really exist if no one talks about it?

[Iceira]

Nope but check Brand board or custom brand name pc , what if they made a controller Driver update with a fix. ( not the first time mistake has been made with old usb port cant say usb-c is possible to do that, ( test with a manual transfer copy does that work faster, then contact steam support with it, usb-c should work way faster.

i mean "Reserving Space" as you said goes fast on internal.
if laptop make sure its on Full performance or you will use reduce performance. ( laptop is build for max energy power saaving, and desktop is not.

ps.
nothing prevent you from test device at other pc to confirm same test to eliminating your own pc cause issue.

[Glory]

Hey, I have a very similar setup to yours and I noticed this issue as well. It began around December 2022. Did you find a solution to this issue? If I find one, I'll be sure to let you know, even though it's been almost a year.

[Iceira]

Just so you know the other few steam user with this seem to have a faulty disk, if i recall correctly. sense we are not support here, such things is not kept track on.

its incredible that USB-C disk, that are way faster should even have it. but nothing we can do about here, sense there is no Brand name of the disk, well it ends there at each own steam user.

You need real support where you bought the item. or RMS case or support of that brand disk webpage.

do check for usb port driver , and Brand own homepage and firmware update, and do read before you do most most be empty before you do such. ( afaik )

[Chaosolous]

引用自 Glory：

Hey, I have a very similar setup to yours and I noticed this issue as well. It began around December 2022. Did you find a solution to this issue? If I find one, I'll be sure to let you know, even though it's been almost a year.

I have not yet found a solution (beyond acceptance) and it is still happening. Coincidentally it also started around that time for me as well (2022).

引用自 Iceira W10：

Just so you know the other few steam user with this seem to have a faulty disk, if i recall correctly. sense we are not support here, such things is not kept track on.

its incredible that USB-C disk, that are way faster should even have it. but nothing we can do about here, sense there is no Brand name of the disk, well it ends there at each own steam user.

You need real support where you bought the item. or RMS case or support of that brand disk webpage.

do check for usb port driver , and Brand own homepage and firmware update, and do read before you do most most be empty before you do such. ( afaik )

It's only Steam that has issues with any of my Hard Drives or Drive Devices. Also only when "allocating space" specifically. Only Steam does this (allocating space) as far as I can tell, if other software does it as well, they don't proclaim it. It also worked very quickly prior to going at a snails pace.

Downloads and installs all work as fast as expected/as they should. Downloading and installing software outside of Steam is fast and works as expected. Downloading and installing from Steam is very snappy.

The only thing that goes super super super slow is when Steam says "Allocating space..." prior to the install. That "allocating space" specifically is super slow. Nothing else. Only allocating space. That is something Steam does. This is a Steam problem, not my hardware. I have already checked. It's with any of my drives (SSD and/or HDD) that I try to install games on.

It also wasn't always like this, it used to be very fast. Allocating space in a matter of seconds, now sometimes it can take over an hour just to get to the installation, since Steam will only allocate space at like 20 to 10 MB/s (maybe even slower). The larger the game, the worse the problem. Anything that's in the gigabyte (almost all games these days) range is basically a day of allocating space. It's insane.

[Triority Interactive Novels]

Same problem here. It's not with all games either. Deep Rock Galactic being one of the offenders.

I wonder if it's a problem with extFat as apposed to NTFS

[Glory]

That makes a lot of sense actually, my hard drive is formatted as extFat

[[SFBOT] Capt, J. Conners]

just got one today and it's doing this exact thing. Still no way to fix this???

[Lavie]

Hi!

Maybe some thing to try here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NSqdXr4aeqA

[jpdfive]

also experiencing trying to install X-Plane 11 on my M1 Mac Mini. Not at all short on power, but steam has always played up on this.

[DoxBinHater]

Did you ever fix it and how?

[Glory]

I did not fix it I also had a friend with an external drive and it took him just as long

[Chaosolous]

This is honestly infuriating because it can't be my hardware. I legit installed Cyberpunk two days ago and it took maybe 20 minutes to download and install ~60GB.

Then I downloaded and installed the DLC which was something like ~17GB and I did that damn near instantaneously.

Now Cyberpunk has a 13GB patch and it's spent the last HOUR "reserving space" on a SSD I just freed a bunch of room on, prior to installing the game originally a few days ago. You know how much space it reserved in that HOUR?

2.2GB of 76.6GB

This will take ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ eons Steam, WTF.

[BobbyK30]

In case anyone is experiencing this "reserving space" massive delay issue before downloading starts this worked instantly for me:

From your Steam Client, open the Settings panel by selecting “Steam > Settings” from the top left client menu. In the Settings panel, select the Downloads tab and you’ll find the “Clear Download Cache” button at the bottom. Then select “OK” to confirm and acknowledge that you’ll need to login to Steam again.

[NumB]

on my setup the issue simply disappeared after reformatting the drive, I had to do it anyway and then realized that the issue disappeared so I didn't get to test around other solutions too much.

if you're interested in trying that out simply type in "computer management" in the windows search bar, then navigate to storage > disc management, choose the drive in question and right-click it. There should be an option called format, click it and follow the instructions

For an external drive you should choose the exFAT file system. Although NTFS should also do the trick. Here a comparison of these two file systems: https://recoverit.wondershare.com/file-system/ntfs-vs-exfat.html

WARNING: This will clear all the data from your disc so you might want to do a backup!

引用自 BobbyK30：

In case anyone is experiencing this "reserving space" massive delay issue before downloading starts this worked instantly for me:

From your Steam Client, open the Settings panel by selecting “Steam > Settings” from the top left client menu. In the Settings panel, select the Downloads tab and you’ll find the “Clear Download Cache” button at the bottom. Then select “OK” to confirm and acknowledge that you’ll need to login to Steam again.

PS.: did anyone test out Bobby's solution?