discovering local files instead of re downlaoding 83 gig

[Petebloodyonion]

Just saying I'm tired of having Steam forgetting, from time to time, already installed game from the library.

Again I would understand, if the game was last play 2 years ago. But, when you just played the game and you want to play again 30 min later, well I would expect to play and not having Steam asking me to install the game.
I would expect to at least be able to remind Steam that all the file are exactly where they should be or validate them instead of having a prompt after 10 min of validation saying 0 mo of 83 gigs (BOPS3).

Now Perhaps when games were 1 gigs I would not complained but it seem to happen more and more often (bad Sync, bugs, update mid game, etc.) but 30 to 90 gigs games are commons and datacaps are quckly busted.

Tks.

Pete

[Black Blade]

It needs to detect the existing files all ready and not redownload
also abut the issue, is Steam crashing before iiy happens? or do you maybe shutdown the PC without exiting Steam first?

[Washell]

Oprindeligt skrevet af Petebloodyonion:

Again I would understand, if the game was last play 2 years ago. But, when you just played the game and you want to play again 30 min later, well I would expect to play and not having Steam asking me to install the game.

That's how it works for virtually everyone. This is an issue specific to your installation, and thus your responsibility to fix.

Oprindeligt skrevet af Petebloodyonion:

but it seem to happen more and more often (bad Sync, bugs, update mid game, etc.)

It sounds like you have a harddrive that's going bad. Every brand offers testing tools on their website, I'd suggest you run them.

[Start_Running]

Oprindeligt skrevet af Black Blade:

It needs to detect the existing files all ready and not redownload
also abut the issue, is Steam crashing before iiy happens? or do you maybe shutdown the PC without exiting Steam first?

I can attest neither of those scenarios generate that erffect. I never shut down steam before I shut down my PC and even where My PC crashes . It doesn't happen.

[wuddih]

Oprindeligt skrevet af Washell:

It sounds like you have a harddrive that's going bad.

or anti virus software or windows permissions heavily interfering with file operations.

[Arax]

I had issue with Steam "forgetting" installed games two times.
When I checked Steam folder I found out that game's .acf file have zero size and was modified last time I run game. Game files were OK and I could play game normally just without Steam.
Steam couldn't restore just .acf file and re-downloaded whole game again (about 10 Gb).

Actually I see no reason why Steam can't check local files to verify if game was already installed because it already have this option existing to fix local files.

[Tito Shivan]

Oprindeligt skrevet af Arax:

Actually I see no reason why Steam can't check local files to verify if game was already installed because it already have this option existing to fix local files.

It already does it.
There's likely another issue if Steam isn't detecting the files.

[Shailo]

Oprindeligt skrevet af Count Tito von Shivanstein:

Oprindeligt skrevet af Arax:

Actually I see no reason why Steam can't check local files to verify if game was already installed because it already have this option existing to fix local files.

It already does it.
There's likely another issue if Steam isn't detecting the files.

That's interesting. Could I then move a Steam library to another hard drive and tell Steam to look for it there instead of where it used to be? Or consolidate multiple Stream libraries into one? I currently have 5 Steam libraries spread over multiple hard drives and I'd like to put them all on a new 5TB external drive. Can I do this without downloading hundreds of GB all over again? If so, how?

Thanks in advance

[Black Blade]

Oprindeligt skrevet af Shailo:

That's interesting. Could I then move a Steam library to another hard drive and tell Steam to look for it there instead of where it used to be? Or consolidate multiple Stream libraries into one? I currently have 5 Steam libraries spread over multiple hard drives and I'd like to put them all on a new 5TB external drive. Can I do this without downloading hundreds of GB all over again? If so, how?

Thanks in advance

Yes, you can just copy the files with the folders from the Steamapps folder and then "reinstall" the games on the new drive, it will find the files and just download if needed
I think there is also a file you need to move, or edit, so it will know the game is there, but sadly i can't really remember
I done so a few times in the past

Oprindeligt skrevet af Start_Running:

I can attest neither of those scenarios generate that erffect. I never shut down steam before I shut down my PC and even where My PC crashes . It doesn't happen.

Well i just toss that as i had cases that Steam messed up something when it was running while the PC was shut down or crashed, but it may just be me

[Arax]

Oprindeligt skrevet af Count Tito von Shivanstein:

Oprindeligt skrevet af Arax:

Actually I see no reason why Steam can't check local files to verify if game was already installed because it already have this option existing to fix local files.

It already does it.
There's likely another issue if Steam isn't detecting the files.

How?
I know you can check local files from "Local files" tab, but if Steam thinks that game is not installed all options there are grayed out and nothing you can do except for downloading game again. If I download game to exactly the same folder Steam don't skip existing files (with same checksum) but download and rewrite them.

[Shailo]

Oprindeligt skrevet af Black Blade (Card Idle):

Yes, you can just copy the files with the folders from the Steamapps folder and then "reinstall" the games on the new drive, it will find the files and just download if needed
I think there is also a file you need to move, or edit, so it will know the game is there, but sadly i can't really remember
I done so a few times in the past

Well I tried copying a game directory to the new drive but couldn't get Steam to recognize it. That file that you mentioned seems to be the key. I then tried deleting local content but Steam began automatically re-downloading into the old drive and I couldn't tell it otherwise. I cancelled that. Fortunately, I had created Steam backups and simply reinstalled from those. It seem that once you cancel a download you can tell Steam where to reinstall to.

I streamlined the procedure to: Make a backup. Reinstall from the backup. Cancel the reinstall (this deletes local content). Reinstall from the backup again but this time specify the new drive and directory. Let it reintall. Its a bit messy but works.

Telling Steam to move the content someplace else would have been much better but at least I don't have to re-download.

Thanks for your help

[Petebloodyonion]

I have seen the Backup file options but I wasn't able to use it cause it was greyed out with a msg saying to download the game before doing a Back up.
And I had no option for a restore Backup of the game.

This problem occured with Killing floor 2 a month ago and Black ops3 just days ago.
The only thing I can think for the moment is that Steam didn't synch right after the game like usual and I decided to reboot my computer to flush my memory.

Also I have tried to start the .exe offline but it started Steam for security purpose and then told me that the game wasn't installed.
Last when Installing you have a windows telling you were the files are being installed from (Steam store) but again no option to change it to local files.

[Shailo]

Oprindeligt skrevet af Petebloodyonion:

I have seen the Backup file options but I wasn't able to use it cause it was greyed out with a msg saying to download the game before doing a Back up.
And I had no option for a restore Backup of the game.

Well, it sounds like Steam has really gotten confused on your game files. I can only suggest that you re-download it one more time and then immediately make a backup. You will then be able to use that backup if it happens again. Unfortunately, the backup format that Stream uses doesn't compress very much and you can expect that 83GB will compress to maybe 75-80GB so you'll waste a fair bit of space. It will also take several hours to reinstall 83GB even from disk.

Lastly, while you can ask to make a backup directly off the game listing, you can also do it from the main Steam drop-down menu under Backup and Restore Games. It will give you a list of games that it recognizes, but I suspect that if it won't let you do a backup from the game list, your game won't be in that list either. You can restore from here, though, by pathing to the backup file.

Obviously, reinstalling from backup doesn't solve your problem, but it does save you from re-downloading and wasting a lot of bandwidth. I suggest too that you put the backup on a different disk just in case your gaming disk has problems.

[Black Blade]

mm.. i like to start saying i am an idiot
There is software to move games around and i got links for two of them that i know of, and completely frogot abut :(
so sorry abut that
one of them:
http://sagenhaft.codeplex.com

I did not really use them so far as copy paste worked for me.. but maybe it can help
sorry

Oprindeligt skrevet af Arax:

Oprindeligt skrevet af Count Tito von Shivanstein:

It already does it.
There's likely another issue if Steam isn't detecting the files.

How?
I know you can check local files from "Local files" tab, but if Steam thinks that game is not installed all options there are grayed out and nothing you can do except for downloading game again. If I download game to exactly the same folder Steam don't skip existing files (with same checksum) but download and rewrite them.

Its suppose to detect the files, got no idea while it will not do in in your case then

[Shailo]

I appreciate the effort. Thank you