Steam Download Server Locations
Let's say I have a game bought on retail/other digital download and installed on my hard drive. I buy the same game (or a minor variant of it, say the GOTY edition) on Steam. It should be possible to use the existing installation to avoid the generally big downloads. This is very useful as it saves both bandwidth and time.Previously, as far as I understood, Steam downloaded the game files directly to steamsteamappscommon. Since this folder would be created on starting the download, pausing and closing steam, copying the game files to this folder and then validating game files would make Steam absorb as much as possible and just download the missing files.Currently, Steam downloads the files to steamsteamappsdownloading and then moves them over to the aforementioned folder once the download finishes. So first of all, what the final folder would be is not clear. So what would be the correct way of doing the same thing, that is, make steam use as much of the existing files as possible?
I'm using Canada-Toronto and I'm getting 300 kbps. I usually get 150 kbps with US-Minnesota which is the closest server to me. What Server do you. Shown below are the average download rates for Steam clients on the most popular Internet Service Providers for, sorted by the number of bytes delivered to that network. Network Average Download Rate. Each point represents Steam download activity from at least one Steam user during a recent 24-hour period.
Should the files be copied to downloading., or should I figure out the actual folder (say via googling) and copy the files to steamappscommon.?More specifically, I had a retail copy of Arkham City installed and I just bought the GOTY version on Steam. Now I tried both of the above things, in either case, the validating does not seem to do anything. Assuming I have the correct folder name steamappscommonBatman Arkham City GOTY, according to, if I copy the files there, Steam seems to just continue with its 17GB download. If I copy it to steamappsdownloading200260 then the download keeps stopping every few seconds with 'Disk Write Error' after modifying 1 or 2 files, and I have to keep hitting resume. I think the following is the correct way to currently do what I wanted:. Ensure that Steam thinks the game is not installed.
Close Steam just to be sure. Copy the game files to SteamAppscommon, where is to be found out via googling/equivalent. In my specific instance, this was Batman Arkham City GOTY.
Launch Steam and install the game. The installation will go through a 'Discovering existing files for ' stage. Watch and wait as it downloads only the missing parts.I still have to download 9.8 GB though (instead of 17) in my specific case. @ColinD If I started the download from scratch, it wanted to download 17 GB, and I know it has downloaded only 9.8 GB using this method.
I also noticed that after the 'discovering' stage was over, the common. folder was reduced to around 7 GB, presumably by removing the files that don't match. The final folder size is 18.6 GB. It didn't keep the saves, probably since the Steam saves are kept somewhat differently than the retail version (I didn't need it to anyway, since I was did a fresh playthrough for the Steam achievements).–Jan 8 '13 at 19:50. Actually you can bind a steam app folder simply from the steam gui!view - settings - download - steam library folderand then choose your shared steam folder. Also now steam let you choose where download games; i hove NOT tested cross-gaming (using the same folder on windows and linux), but just relinked my folder (somehow steam lost track of my external HDD) and everythings work fine.Tested having game in different HDD/partition and works fine. If you Start up steam without external HDD, a reboot of steam is needed to let it 'see' the folder.
This solution should work if the game is displaying in the library folder in Steam with the words 'update required' written next to it but the game won't recognize the existing game files on the hard drive.- Pay close attention to these steps!!!-.- Important- First go to your games folder either in SteamSteamAppsCommon or whatever folder you've already copied the game to and make a copy of the game to a different destination on the hard drive other than in the Steam folder or copy it to a external hard drive as a back up. The next step will delete the game folder in the SteamSteamAppsCommon directory. So this is why this is important.Go to your Steam library and right click on the game that is causing the issue and then click 'delete local content'. This will delete the game file from the Steam library and from the Steam directory on the hard drive.Now copy the games folder back into the common folder located in SteamSteamAppsCommon from the location we had copied it to before in step #1.Finally open Steam, the game title should now be grey-ed out in the Steam library and when you right click on it, it should say 'install game.' Click on install game and choose the games directory for installation (usually the the default one) is the one to choose, click next, Agree. Now it should say discovering existing files. (this is a good thing) and click finish.
Steam Download Server Locations List
Now it should work.If so congratulations! If not idfk what will work but this seemed to work for me.
If it did work for you please leave a comment so i can be sure this is a solution that others can use. Issue solved:Hope this helps you guys. Go to View Settings Downloads. On STEAM LIBRARY FOLDERS add the folder on the unit where you want to have your games (must be empty, Steam will prompt if not) and close.
Go to that folder and you should have the following structure:. newfolder. SteamApps '.). common.