"Corrupt update files" error with external SSD??

[凸 (^_^) 凸]

I was moving some games from the internal SSD to my Samsung T7 external SSD, and I found out that some games (like Hades, RE2 remake, The Stanley Parable, Stray etc) just stopped working, like the game just shut down immediately after it started, while some other games (like Rise of the Tomb Raider, Hollow Knight and some smaller games) still work fine.

I used the stock USB-C cable that came with the drive and plugged it in a USB3.2 gen 2 port, so I thought it should be fine.

I tried to verify integrity of game files, it said that some number of files failed and need to be reacquired. But then while it redownloaded the files, towards the end it gave me a "Corrupt update files" error. Even after I uninstalled the game and tried to reinstall it I still get the same error.....

Does anyone have any idea why this happens? Do some games just not run on external drives?

[凸 (^_^) 凸]

Thanks a lot guys I appreciate all the replies and inputs, I’ve been busy these past few days and today I finally got time to investigate this again. Well, as it turns out, the problem IS with my external SSD itself after all. However, I CANNOT tell what exactly is wrong with it.

Allow me to summarise my experience/actions, so hopefully when someone has the same issue, they can feel just a bit less clueless haha.

1. I initially moved 44 games (some big some small) from my internal SSD to the Samsung T7 using the Steam built-in function (which means you know adding Steam library in the proper way, selected all the games I wanted to move, clicked the “Move” button etc.). I didn’t manually copy the folders over in Windows Explorer.
2. About half of the games wouldn’t boot up, like I described in the post. The other half had no problem. Trying to verify integrity of game files would result in the “Corrupt update files” error.
3. I used the provided USB-C cable, and the USB 3.2 gen 2 port on my laptop.
4. I tried using a few different USB-C and USB-C-to-A cables, as well as different ports on my laptop like USB-C, A, Thunderbolt 4. Didn’t make a difference. So it’s not the cable/port’s problem.
5. I tried unplugging everything else on my laptop because I thought it might be all the peripherals and extension hub consuming too much bandwidth. Didn’t make a difference.
6. I tried whitelisting the Steam installation folder and all the library folders in Windows Defender, even disabling it completely. Didn’t make a difference. So it’s not Windows Defender’s problem.
7. I tried setting power mode of my laptop to Performance, instead of the default Balance. Didn’t make a difference. So it’s not power mode’s problem.
8. I tried formatting the T7 from exFAT to NTFS. Didn’t make a difference. So it’s not drive format’s problem.
9. I ran a short scan and a full scan using Samsung Magician to check disk health. Both times 100%, no bad sector found. So it’s not the SSD health’s problem. I’ve only used it for 2 weeks and I’ve had no problem with it before.
10. Finally, I decided to find my old Sandisk Portable 2TB SSD and give it a go, and it worked flawlessly…… Moving games, installing games, running games, no problem at all.
11. So I though, hmmm maybe it’s something wrong with this particular model of SSD. So I bought another Samsung T7, because I needed another SSD anyway, thinking if it doesn’t work I’ll just return it. And guess what, It also worked flawlessly.

So… this really is just a mystery to me now. Maybe someone with a very good understanding of how SSD drivers work will be able to explain what happened. I doubt this is Steam’s problem, maybe Samsung support could give me an answer, but I just can’t be bothered to call them about this anymore. Is there a way to report this to their technical support? I’m happy to write an email.

[凸 (^_^) 凸]

Originally posted by Harmonica:

edit: updated a different game, MultiVersus, also ended with corrupt files. So yeah I'd say in my case the drive is just bad.

Yeah maybe we just got drives that are bad in a very hidden way, so it works fine normally but just doesn’t work with Steam (and potentially other apps/tasks). I’d say try another drive if you can bro.

[Harmonica]

Thanks for the extra info on what you've tried. Sorry you haven't solved the problem. Samsung might be able to help you out with a replacement directly, it's not unheard of, though they might just point you to your retailer.

I did get a second drive but they're very likely to be from the same batch since I bought them at the same time. Anyway, I'll try that tomorrow and probably just try straight up installing games rather than moving stuff over to see if that makes any difference (have you tried doing that?).

If I had a new system I'd also suspect the RAM but this is a years old PC with no other issues so it's very unlikely the RAM has gone bad, but it's always a possibility (tends to ruin file extraction, copying, patching etc).

[Maria]

Originally posted by 凸 (^_^) 凸:

snip

Not steam's fault for sure. The first one is a defect product. Make sure to RMA

[凸 (^_^) 凸]

Originally posted by Harmonica:

Anyway, I'll try that tomorrow and probably just try straight up installing games rather than moving stuff over to see if that makes any difference (have you tried doing that?).

Yeah I did try to fresh install instead of moving them, still got that “Corrupt update file” error at the “verifying” stage (it’s right after the download is finished and the drive goes into a period of high read rate). If it’s a good drive, like my Sandisk Portable and new T7, it doesn’t matter if you move or install they should all work.

[凸 (^_^) 凸]

Originally posted by Harmonica:

If I had a new system I'd also suspect the RAM but this is a years old PC with no other issues so it's very unlikely the RAM has gone bad, but it's always a possibility (tends to ruin file extraction, copying, patching etc).

Yeah I doubt it’s RAM. Although I haven’t tried disabling virtual memory, I doubt that’s gonna make any difference either.

[Harmonica]

Alright, I made some progress. Used the Samsung software as you did, and it gave me good condition reports and the admittedly pretty useless 1gb copy test was okay. Was going to do the full one overnight, but tried copying my own 20gb+ of data with a parity check on the files, and they basically had a ton of missing data blocks immediately after copying them over.

Changed port and cable to known good ones (other working drives) and now this new T7 seems to be working properly - reformated it, same 20gb passed parity check, am able to install into a fresh Steam library okay, etc.

So it seems like either bad port or cable. (just in case this is useful to anyone later, the cable was the supplied USB 3 C->B, into a blue USB 3 port, Asus mobo). As I said I vaguely remember someone in a review saying the cables matter a lot for these drives to work reliably. Port was a little dusty before I used it, but I don't know if that affects devices if they're plugged in and running.

Kind of annoying as I was about to get it replaced, but now have to keep using it to see if it bricks again... good thing covid means all the return times were extended.

edit: and yes the logical step would be to plug a known good drive into that other port to see if it also starts having issues, but eh... kind of not willing to risk that.

[凸 (^_^) 凸]

Originally posted by Harmonica:

So it seems like either bad port or cable. (just in case this is useful to anyone later, the cable was the supplied USB 3 C->B, into a blue USB 3 port, Asus mobo). As I said I vaguely remember someone in a review saying the cables matter a lot for these drives to work reliably. Port was a little dusty before I used it, but I don't know if that affects devices if they're plugged in and running.

I see, in my case I used the provided USB-C>C cable and plugged into a USB-C 3.2 gen 2 port. I tried other known good ports & cables but same results. I think it may just be my drive. How did you do the parity check? I also wonder, how did you spot the missing data blocks, since you never had problems with that drive before?

[Harmonica]

Originally posted by 凸 (^_^) 凸:

I see, in my case I used the provided USB-C>C cable and plugged into a USB-C 3.2 gen 2 port. I tried other known good ports & cables but same results. I think it may just be my drive. How did you do the parity check?

I used Quick Par to produce the parity file for a bunch of large files, then copied them over to the new drive and retested them (first moving the .par2 file out of the directory it was in, so it doesn't just retest the original files - but don't move it to the new drive, or it might also be damaged). Set recovery files to 0 when you're creating them for the purposes of this, otherwise you'll be there all night. If the copied files are good then it will probably show as 'Misnamed' (yellow) since they're in a different directory to the .par2, but otherwise it will say Missing/damaged (red) and report how many blocks are missing.

edit: forgot to mention that if you want to repeatedly test the same files, you will need to clear QuickPar's own results cache, which is in C:\Users\[username]\AppData\Local\QuickPar\

[Making parity check and recovery files is good thing to do for any important data you store on externals anyway. Keep the parity files on a different drive, test every year or so, repair them if necessary. Most likely unless you have a ton of data (dozens of TBs at least) you'll never see any errors but minor 'data rot' over time is theoretically possible, even on good drives.]

[凸 (^_^) 凸]

Originally posted by Harmonica:

Originally posted by 凸 (^_^) 凸:

I see, in my case I used the provided USB-C>C cable and plugged into a USB-C 3.2 gen 2 port. I tried other known good ports & cables but same results. I think it may just be my drive. How did you do the parity check?

I used Quick Par to produce the parity file for a bunch of large files, then copied them over to the new drive and retested them (first moving the .par2 file out of the directory it was in, so it doesn't just retest the original files - but don't move it to the new drive, or it might also be damaged). Set recovery files to 0 when you're creating them for the purposes of this, otherwise you'll be there all night. If the copied files are good then it will probably show as 'misnamed' since they're in a different directory to the .par2, but otherwise it will say Missing/damaged and report how many blocks are missing.

[Making parity check and recovery files is good thing to do for any important data you store on externals anyway. Keep the parity files on a different drive, test every year or so, repair them if necessary. Most likely unless you have a ton of data (dozens of TBs at least) you'll never see any errors but minor 'data rot' over time is theoretically possible, even on good drives.]

Thanks mate I'll give it a go :) I thought Quick Par is already like a legacy software of some kind as it has stopped updating years ago. Looks like Multipar is the new version? Have you used it? Also, is Quick Par able to fix anything once it finds any missing/damaged files?

[Iceira]

You dont need to call them, most of them do have WEB Support page.

But RMA casses / warranty such still can be asked there.

[Harmonica]

edit a few days later: Guess I spoke too soon. After installing and running fine yesterday, the same games are now throwing file verification errors and all that nonsense again. Also the 20gb data parity check is failing as well. Kind of inexplicable how it worked and then suddenly with no use in between the data is no good but eh I guess this is what it looks like when an SSD is not working properly :/

edit 2 (to save from bumping, information for anyone searching up this thread): returned that drive, trying the other one I purchased at the same time, so far so good, passes all the tests and Steam install process okay. Still give it a few weeks to properly test it but I guess I just received a bad drive (has to happen occasionally).

Originally posted by 凸 (^_^) 凸:

Thanks mate I'll give it a go :) I thought Quick Par is already like a legacy software of some kind as it has stopped updating years ago. Looks like Multipar is the new version? Have you used it? Also, is Quick Par able to fix anything once it finds any missing/damaged files?

It's one of those softwares that still does the job even though it hasn't changed in years. And yes if you produce recovery files, you can repair upto a % of damaged files depending on how many recovery files you make. So typically after archiving a folder with Winrar or 7Zip or whatever, then make 10-15% recovery and that's good enough for any minor data errors that might rarely happen. (though in this case with drives not managing to copy files properly, probably there would be too much 'damage' to repair - also in the case of a failing drive, don't repair them in place, copy the damaged files off first).

[凸 (^_^) 凸]

Originally posted by Harmonica:

edit a few days later: Guess I spoke too soon. After installing and running fine yesterday, the same games are now throwing file verification errors and all that nonsense again. Also the 20gb data parity check is failing as well. Kind of inexplicable how it worked and then suddenly with no use in between the data is no good but eh I guess this is what it looks like when an SSD is not working properly :/

edit 2 (to save from bumping, information for anyone searching up this thread): returned that drive, trying the other one I purchased at the same time, so far so good, passes all the tests and Steam install process okay. Still give it a few weeks to properly test it but I guess I just received a bad drive (has to happen occasionally).

Originally posted by 凸 (^_^) 凸:

Thanks mate I'll give it a go :) I thought Quick Par is already like a legacy software of some kind as it has stopped updating years ago. Looks like Multipar is the new version? Have you used it? Also, is Quick Par able to fix anything once it finds any missing/damaged files?

It's one of those softwares that still does the job even though it hasn't changed in years. And yes if you produce recovery files, you can repair upto a % of damaged files depending on how many recovery files you make. So typically after archiving a folder with Winrar or 7Zip or whatever, then make 10-15% recovery and that's good enough for any minor data errors that might rarely happen. (though in this case with drives not managing to copy files properly, probably there would be too much 'damage' to repair - also in the case of a failing drive, don't repair them in place, copy the damaged files off first).

Thanks for the explanation mate :) My new T7 is working without any issue as well same as you (will report back here if anything goes wrong), so I guess the problem was just a bad drive after all. Hope this thread can be helpful for people with the same problem in the future.

[凸 (^_^) 凸]

Originally posted by Iceira W10:

You dont need to call them, most of them do have WEB Support page.

But RMA casses / warranty such still can be asked there.

I'll give that a try thanks.