CS:S / Steam -- constantly redownloading maps, sounds, ARGH!

[nerp]

Where the heck are mani, quake, sound and map files going? I recently reinstalled Vista and Steam a few days ago and now I find myself re-downloading the quake sounds and mani admin plugin/server sounds over and over and over. When I look in the program files/steamapps etc folder, it is not creating the 'sounds' folder and nothing I'm supposedly downloading is showing up.

I suspect this is some kind of permissions issue, but I never had to do any special permissions stuff to get steam and CS:S to work properly before. Why should I have to muck about with security settings now when I never did before? Is there some trick I'm missing? I shouldn't have to run steam as admin, right? I have UAC on, but I won't accept turning that off as a solution. I guess I could try disabling it temporarily and see if it makes a difference.

Has anyone encountered this? Any suggestions would be very helpful. I'm running out of ideas and feel like a tool for not figuring this out.

It's really frustrating because this means I can't play VIP, Gungame or custom maps. When it's done 'downloading' all the required plugin/map files, I get a "blah blah is missing" since nothing is actually saving in the game folders. So, for now, it's stock maps only.

 

[nerp]

Well, after a few hours of soul-searching, I've figured out the issue.

The problem had nothing to do with Vista, permissions, or anything on my computer.

The problem was with a poorly configured server. Turns out it's the only server I play.

Problem was resolved by joining other servers to obtain the mani/quake sounds and then I got a regular of the server to e-mail me a .zip of the server-specific sounds. I'm good to go now and the server is scheduled for a reinstall this weekend.