Disk write and read error prevents installation of large games from steam.

Wayne Pierce · Jun 11, 2023

Greetings, I apologize in advance for the long thread, bad grammar and for unable to upload any screenshots or images concerning my scenario, I have attempted to upload the images here, but it would just say files failed to upload so here's a google drive of the photos instead.

https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1PWKDvHtm6b_K05NyX4yX99V6GaAQR9or?usp=sharing

When installing games in my Local Disk C: everything is fine but when installing large games on my D: drive(namely Ready or Not, GTA 5 and Payday 2), steam would pause my installation and say that it has encountered a disk write error, if I continue the installation it would soon again pause again because of disk write error. Sometimes it would just not let me proceed with the installation even if I resume it, it would pause immediately right after I click resume because of disk write error. Other times it has made it to the verification stage but then would not complete and then say disk read error. I tried installing smaller sized games as a test such as Borderlands 2, it did encounter disk write error from time to time but it was able to complete the download, it did encounter errors when loading in however after verifying the game it was fine.

I have tried changing my download server, clearing steam download cache, restarting and running steam as administrator, giving steam full control permissions, repairing the steam download folder, analyze/optimize/scan/repair/ errors on all my drives, disabling anti-virus and firewall and even formatted my PC and all of my drives just for this with the quick format unchecked. and attempted to uncheck its read-only property. However, after unchecking the read only property and clicking apply and ok, if I were to view the folders property again it would be checked, it is as if there were no changes, this doesn't just apply to my D: drive but to all of my drives. I assumed this was the doing of write protection, so I've tried disabling it using windows registry editor and diskpart via command prompt but still no effect. I have also tried verifying the integrity of the files but it would show that the size of local files is 0 bytes even though it is the only thing that is taking space in that drive with "all 169 files successfully validated."

I have been attempting to fix this issue for 5 days now and have done everything that I can with little knowledge of how this works so there may have been things that I have touched and tampered with that I should not have.

:)

Tezzarrific

could be a faulty sata cable or a faulty hdd, you can test the disk all you want but it could be an IO error causing it.

you could try crystal disk info to check all the smart info to see if there are any errors listed on the hdd log and then crystal disk mark to tesk read write.

ngocphi

Modt large gamea requiee you to install the disk because read and write times along with dlcs

All next gen consoles require this

Games tend to be biggwr then the disk and are compressed to fit more

Installs reduce wear and tear on the drive

ngocphi

Also it can be cacheing issues Which are game specific as only only bad cache of files can prevent reading and writing
Use the disk read troubleshooter

Installing onto hd doesn't stop disk drive wear it only slows it down

Mavis - MSFT

Hello Ron,

Thank you for using Microsoft products and posting to the community.

We fully understand the inconvenience the issue has caused and that the current situation can be frustrating. You're currently experiencing a problem where you get a "disk write error" message when downloading a game in Steam and you want to fix it by changing the read-only mode of the file, right?

When you get a "disk write error" message when downloading a game from Steam, a common recommendation is indeed to make sure that the installation folder is not set to "read-only" mode. However, according to your description, you've tried a number of things and the problem persists. It's likely that something else is preventing you from downloading and installing the game from Steam. For now, you can try to download the game from Steam again, and you can try downloading to another region to see if the problem still exists.

Alternatively, you can try the following to see if it works.

Verify the integrity of the game files: In your Steam library, right-click on the game and select Properties. Then, go to the Local Files tab and select Verify Integrity of Game Files. If Steam finds any corrupted files, it will automatically replace them.
Use Another Hard Drive: If you have multiple hard drives, try installing the game on a different drive to see if the issue persists.
Check for Disk Errors: Run a disk check utility to ensure your hard drive is functioning correctly and doesn't have any bad sectors. Right-click the Start menu in the lower-left corner, and then click File Explorer. Right-click on the partition where the game is installed, and then click Properties. Click Tools, and then click Check.

If, after trying the steps above, you are still unable to download the game from Steam, then you may want to contact Steam Support to assist you further with this issue, and Steam's Technical Support team can walk you through potential solutions to your specific problem. You can also find help in the Steam Community forum.

Contact Steam for help

Disclaimer: Microsoft provides no assurances and/or warranties, implied or otherwise, and is not responsible for the information you receive from the third-party linked sites or any support related to technology.

Please feel free to let me know if you have any further updates, thanks.

Sincerely

| Microsoft Community Support Specialist

tohellnbak

the files are too large and the read speed is too slow for a game to play directly off of a disc (not disk) so that is the reason why games need to be installed to the HDD

Disk write and read error prevents installation of large games from steam.