Massive problem downloading and installing Bioshock DLC

[Mr. Mass]

Hi guys, I'm having a big problem trying to install Bioshock Infinite Burial at Sea - Episode 2 (DLC).

I bought the game yesterday and everything went fine in the buying process and the option to update the game showed up.

The problem started with the update. Steam showed the status: "PREALLOCATING". It stayed that way for many minutes (between 20 and 30 minutes) so I thought the program was frozen and I tried to close it. Steam crashed and everything closed. But the steam process was still showing in the Task Manager Processes. Since I couldn't end it and also couldn't restart the program, I had to restart the PC.

After the computer restarted, I ran Steam again and it showed that the download started. It was downloading normally and I thought everyting was ok. But after a few hours, when I checked again, the Steam software was closed. Again, the steam process was still showing in the Task Manager Processes. Since I couldn't end it and also couldn't restart the program, I had to restart the PC.

After the computer restarted, I ran Steam again and the download kept going from the point it had stopped (around 35%). This time I was following the progress and I noticed that at one time, the download stopped and there was this message on steam: "BUSY WRITTING TO DISK". After a while, the program just crashed again. And one more time, the process was still showing in the Task Manager, I had to restart the PC.

I did this whole process a couple more times, hoping that the download progress would keep advancing. But I noticed that one time, the progress didn't restart from where it stopped. it went back a few % and kept crashing near 40%. So I decided to try to fix this to make the download work normally.

After some google research, I found many simillar cases and followed their advices. This included:
- powering off and on the modem and the router, to make sure it's not a connection problem.
- reinstall steam (deleting everything, minus the steamapps folder and the steam.exe.
- changing the download region on Steam (I'm from Brazil, changed it to US).
- disabling the "cloud" options.
- disabling the anti virus temporarilly.
- making sure the windows fire wall was not blocking Steam.
- I veryfied the integrity of game cache (by right clicking Bioshock Infinite > properties > local files) * Here something weird happens. In less than 1 second, a message pops up saying the files are veryfied. I think it should take a while to read all the files and check this.
- I tried running Steam.exe in compatibility mode (some advices said the problem was gone by using windows XP compatibility mode).
- I tried running Steam as an administrator.

But nothing worked.

So I deleted all downloaded update files, so that I could try to start from the beginning again.
So there was the "preallocating" message again and I decided to wait more. There is a small progress bar on steam and after almost 3 hours the progress bar didn't change and the status still was "preallocating". So I was back to the same problem.

I decided to delete the "main" Bioshock Infinite and try to download everything again. I didn't want to try this option because I have slow internet and the game is big (the download goes a little over 600kb/sec). But I coudln't delete it using Steam, so I had to do it in windows explorer. Even after I deleted everything, when I opened Steam, there wasn't an option to install the game. Steam acted like the game was still installed and the status was "ready to play".

BTW this is the status it has shown since the beginning. And I did try to play a couple of times during all this process, cause I read this would force the game to update some files. But the game always crashed on the main screen.

So I reinstalled steam again, hoping it would recognize the games that are installed and realize that Bioshock is no longer there. This worked. Steam now showed the option to install Bioshock. But since I started writing this message, the progress is stucked. The installation window says: "creating local game cache files..." and the progress bar has this status: "allocating disk space for Bioshock Infinite". The progress bar is right at beginning and it has been a while that I've been waiting and writting this.

Some extra info about my system and situation:
Win7
Intel Q6600
6GB RAM
VGA GTX 550Ti
The HD where it's been installed has 100GB of free space.
- I don't think it's a hardware problem
- I don't think it's anything related to virus, malware, etc.
- I play many games and never had a problem like this. Even with other games acquired through Steam. Just a couple of months ago, I downloaded another game from Steam and didn't have any problems.
- The problem happens even if I don't do anything else on the PC while Steam tried to download the game (I did use firefox in a few ocasions and played an offline game).

So can anyone help?

ps: happy new year.

[Mr. Mass]

Update1:

After all that, I restarted the PC again because the installation was stucked at the "creating local game cache files..." and "allocating disk space for Bioshock Infinite". When I started steam, the download started going. This time I have to download the whole game, since I deleted all Bioshock files. But after a few hours the download stopped again, just like before. The steam simply close itselfs, but the process keep existing in windows task manager and now I have to restart the PC again.

Other things that I tried and didn't work: checking the auto update settings and download schedule settings.

I'll try this next (just saw it on another thread):
"Restart your computer in "Safe mode with network" and start the download. It will complete and will be launchable once you restart into normal mode again. "

[Muppet among Puppets]

Did you right click game, delete local content?

[Mr. Mass]

Messaggio originale di Muppet among Puppets:

Did you right click game, delete local content?

I tried that, but steam freezes and doesn't do anything. So I had to use windows explorer.

I also tried the thing that I said on my previous post. But loading windows on safe mode, still made Steam stop the download and display the "busy writing to disk" message.

I'm taking a break now, as I don't know what else to do. I'm not going to format the whole PC just for this game.

edit: I forgot to say, I'm scanning the HD for errors. But as I said before, I don't think it's a hardware problem.

[Mr. Mass]

Update2:

The scan showed no errors on the HD.

I uninstalled Steam again and installed it on the same drive where the games are installed (drive D:). Previously, steam was installed with the system, under program files (x86), on drive C:. It didn't make any difference.

I restarted the modem again, because I had problems with the internet before, so I wanted to make sure.

I saw some info on other things that could cause this problem, but it's too technical for me:
https://github.com/ValveSoftware/steam-for-linux/issues/3450

[Lion Sin Krypt L]

ich kann dir nicht helfen.

[Mr. Mass]

Is there a way to end Steam.exe when the software doesn't close correctly and can't be closed by windows task manager? It's a pain in the ass to have to restart the PC all the time.

[Metheglin]

Messaggio originale di Mr. Mass:

Is there a way to end Steam.exe when the software doesn't close correctly and can't be closed by windows task manager? It's a pain in the ass to have to restart the PC all the time.

I usually use this: http://technet.microsoft.com/en-gb/sysinternals/bb896653

It can cause problems with some types of DRM though.

[The Giving One]

I saw in your title that you changed download regions but it SEEMED like you only did this once (from Brazil to US)...change it again then completely exit out of steam then log back in the verify the region change stayed the way you changed it and try to download again...do this every time you change regions and keep trying different ones.

[Mr. Mass]

Messaggio originale di Origin:

Messaggio originale di Mr. Mass:

Is there a way to end Steam.exe when the software doesn't close correctly and can't be closed by windows task manager? It's a pain in the ass to have to restart the PC all the time.

I usually use this: http://technet.microsoft.com/en-gb/sysinternals/bb896653

It can cause problems with some types of DRM though.

I tried this program, but it didn't work. I also tried an old program I had, called killbox, but they can't stop the Steam process.

Messaggio originale di The Giving One:

I saw in your title that you changed download regions but it SEEMED like you only did this once (from Brazil to US)...change it again then completely exit out of steam then log back in the verify the region change stayed the way you changed it and try to download again...do this every time you change regions and keep trying different ones.

I had tried changing it to Chile as well, which is closer to here, but it didn't work. I'll try again next time I restart the PC.

[Muppet among Puppets]

What happens if you install the game on another partition?
You can choose IN STEAM, while starting to download. Where to install it to.

[Mr. Mass]

Messaggio originale di Muppet among Puppets:

What happens if you install the game on another partition?
You can choose IN STEAM, while starting to download. Where to install it to.

I always chose the same partition because I like to keep all the games together. I'll try to download it to my backup HD.

[The Giving One]

Messaggio originale di Muppet among Puppets:

What happens if you install the game on another partition?
You can choose IN STEAM, while starting to download. Where to install it to.

agree with this...always a good idea to not instal in program files either

[Mr. Mass]

I tried to install it on another drive and the problem still happens. I even unistalled and reinstalled steam again and changed the download region again. I also uninstalled another game (Metro Last Light) because it had an update paused for a long time, so I thought it could be interfering.

I was trying to remember all the changes I did to the PC since the last time I sucessfully donwloaded and installed a game on Steam. All I could remember was installing a new version of my anti virus (Avast) and updating Windows. Since I already disabled the anti virus and the problem was still happening, I think it can't be the anti virus that is causing this.

So after reading dozens of websites, pages and threads on this forum, I come to the conclusion that it's probably something on windows that is affecting Steam. Something that started on my last windows update. I tried to do another windows update earlier today and saw that there was an error. I'm trying to fix it now.

My fear is that this will affect all future Steam downloads and not just this game. So I would probably be forced to reinstall windows again, if I can't fix this.

[The Giving One]

Did you change your download location then log out and exit completely out of steam then long back in and confirm the change took effect and then tried to download again ? You have to do this EVERYTIME you change the region....change it several times to test this and try again....

EDIT...avast is on the list...
https://support.steampowered.com/kb_article.php?ref=9828-SFLZ-9289

"Please make sure that Steam and all Steam games are listed as exceptions in these programs. If the issue persists, please try disabling or temporarily uninstalling the program to test the issue."

EDIT...how old is your hard drive ? Is it mostly full ? The "writing to disk" error could be hardware related as you many know...

[Mr. Mass]

Messaggio originale di The Giving One:

Did you change your download location then log out and exit completely out of steam then long back in and confirm the change took effect and then tried to download again ? You have to do this EVERYTIME you change the region....change it several times to test this and try again....

EDIT...avast is on the list...
https://support.steampowered.com/kb_article.php?ref=9828-SFLZ-9289

"Please make sure that Steam and all Steam games are listed as exceptions in these programs. If the issue persists, please try disabling or temporarily uninstalling the program to test the issue."

EDIT...how old is your hard drive ? Is it mostly full ? The "writing to disk" error could be hardware related as you many know...

About the download location and region, yes I did that.

Regarding Avast, I included steam and valve websites as exceptions and the file path as exception as well. But this shouldn't matter because as I said before, Avast was disabled and it didn't solve the problem.

About the hard drives. I tried to install in 2 different hard drives and even scanned them for errors. One is about 7~8 years old (WD caviar black), the other is less than 1 year old (Seagate). As I already explained, space is not a problem. The first has a partition with more than 100GB, the second has 300+ GB of free space.


The good news is that I was able to fix the Windows Update issue. After downloading some things from microsoft, it installed Win 7 Service Pack 1. This update had failed last time I used windows update (earlier today) and also had failed the time before (novemeber 2014). If this is somehow connected to the Steam problem, it may have fixed it. I have reinstalled Steam and will try to download the game again now.