- Jan 29, 2005
- 5,190
- 185
- 106
I'll try to make this short...
I've done some cleaning up with my files and drives recently, and reinstalled Windows (7). But before doing that I had to create some extra space in my back-up drive in order to move most of my Steam games (from the "common" folder) to it (to the back-up drive) from my main drive. To save that extra space I had to delete some files in some of my game installation folders. I looked at the biggest-sized folders (of specific games) to make sure that I wouldn't delete too much of any specific game, but just enough so that I'd save said extra needed space. I did that because I knew that Steam would recognize the already-existing files and just download the rest after reinstalling it (Steam). Well, it did recognize some, but now I'm running in a weird problem that I've never encountered before (logic, since I've never had to resort to deleting half my games before to save HDD space for back-up purposes).
The main issue I'm experiencing right now is that Steam tells me that I own 'x' game and that the game in question is already in my Steam Library, even though it's not. For example, the game Alien Swarm (it's just one of the few games I have that same issue with) shows as "In Library / You Own It" when browsing for it in the Steam store. That's because I want to initiate the game's download to force Steam to see the already-existing files of that game that happen to be present in the proper folder under Steamapps (common folder). So, essentially, about half of the game is there, the biggest files are still there, the only ones missing are the executable and a couple of others.
I've tried to simply cut the Alien Swarm's folder out of the Steam's common folder to somewhere else and restart Steam to see if it then would consider the game "gone". It still thinks that I own it and that it is present in my Library. Since Steam thinks the game is still in my Library it doesn't allow me to initiate any download. And of course, since the game isn't in the Library there's no way for me to right-click the title to check the files integrity to just download any would-be missing files.
So for now I have to ways to effectively just recover missing files without having to download the entire game again. Not to mention that even if I had to download the entire games again I still wouldn't be able to since I have no actual download options available in the Steam store since Steam thinks said games are in my Library to start with.
What would be my solution(s)?
I've done some cleaning up with my files and drives recently, and reinstalled Windows (7). But before doing that I had to create some extra space in my back-up drive in order to move most of my Steam games (from the "common" folder) to it (to the back-up drive) from my main drive. To save that extra space I had to delete some files in some of my game installation folders. I looked at the biggest-sized folders (of specific games) to make sure that I wouldn't delete too much of any specific game, but just enough so that I'd save said extra needed space. I did that because I knew that Steam would recognize the already-existing files and just download the rest after reinstalling it (Steam). Well, it did recognize some, but now I'm running in a weird problem that I've never encountered before (logic, since I've never had to resort to deleting half my games before to save HDD space for back-up purposes).
The main issue I'm experiencing right now is that Steam tells me that I own 'x' game and that the game in question is already in my Steam Library, even though it's not. For example, the game Alien Swarm (it's just one of the few games I have that same issue with) shows as "In Library / You Own It" when browsing for it in the Steam store. That's because I want to initiate the game's download to force Steam to see the already-existing files of that game that happen to be present in the proper folder under Steamapps (common folder). So, essentially, about half of the game is there, the biggest files are still there, the only ones missing are the executable and a couple of others.
I've tried to simply cut the Alien Swarm's folder out of the Steam's common folder to somewhere else and restart Steam to see if it then would consider the game "gone". It still thinks that I own it and that it is present in my Library. Since Steam thinks the game is still in my Library it doesn't allow me to initiate any download. And of course, since the game isn't in the Library there's no way for me to right-click the title to check the files integrity to just download any would-be missing files.
So for now I have to ways to effectively just recover missing files without having to download the entire game again. Not to mention that even if I had to download the entire games again I still wouldn't be able to since I have no actual download options available in the Steam store since Steam thinks said games are in my Library to start with.
What would be my solution(s)?
Last edited: