Downloads "Stopping" on external SSD

[Rebellion]

I've had this problem off an on for a few months now, usually it would be one download a week at most, now its more likely this will happen than not.

When the issue occurs its only when I attempt to install to an external SSD. Its not the drive itself Ive checked it many times, and can download from anywhere other than steam with 0 issues, I also have this issue happen with a separate computer and a separate external SSD, again can download from anywhere else with no problem. The download will start and run for a seemingly random amount of time (sometimes within seconds, sometimes after 5 minutes) then it will slow to nothing and steam will say the download is "stopping" forever.

I know it is definitely something to do with steam and external drives since the client bootstrapper stays in my processes and cannot be closed by any means other than restarting my computer. I have managed to figure out that it is the process stuck on the external drive even after I have crashed steam and closed all of the webhelper processes.

I have tried clearing the download cache, manually deleting the downloading folders in both my main steam library as well as the external library.

Has anyone encountered this issue and managed to solve it?

[Supafly]

External drives are not recommended. They are known to have micro disconnect/reconnects. So if it disconnects for a fraction of a second it'll stop downloads.

[_I_]

best to install it on an internal drive

the download process takes alot longer on external due to low bandwidth (and iops) to the drive
it needs to download, uncompress and copy data on the same drive at the same times

usb works best with 1 operation at a time

or install it on an internal drive, then use steam to move it to the external

[Rebellion]

Originally posted by _I_:

best to install it on an internal drive

the download process takes alot longer on external due to low bandwidth (and iops) to the drive
it needs to download, uncompress and copy data on the same drive at the same times

usb works best with 1 operation at a time

or install it on an internal drive, then use steam to move it to the external

I think that did it, super annoying Ill have to do that with every game now...wish steam could catch up to the rest of the world.

[Porky Pig]

You can move your games to an external drive. after downloading to the internal drive.

[Bad 💀 Motha]

It shouldn't really take much extra time overall since it should download faster to internal ssd and be much more consistent overall. A move from one ssd to another shouldn't take long at all once it's done downloading.

Disable usb power saving for devices and ports and also the hdd sleep timer in your Windows Power Profile. As that hdd timer applies to all secondary drives, internal and external