- #Steam download preallocating install
- #Steam download preallocating windows 10
- #Steam download preallocating verification
- #Steam download preallocating Offline
- #Steam download preallocating free
Try that before downloading anything extra. Windows has a built in disk/file system checker (chkdsk). It's strange that no one seems to be able, or willing, to explain what's actually happening when Steam is preallocating.
#Steam download preallocating free
I guess it could be a bit more complicated than that but I have a hard time believing that Steam does some kind of defragmenting to have a continuous block of free space for the download/install. Although I don't actually know what constitutes this preallocating, it sounds like it's simply a matter of allocating enough disk space before the download begins. I find it weird if it's some kind of communication problem though.
#Steam download preallocating windows 10
This is all taken care of by the OS itself though, at least in my case with Windows 10 :) However, the address of each file fragments takes a small amount of space and there are of course limits where this starts to affect performance or even produce errors. Since there are no moving parts, memory access takes the same amount of time regardless of location. The term "fragmentation" is meaningless in an environment which does not require a physical sequential search of a physical location on a disk. I have 100+ GB or 20+% free space on my system drive where I was installing DOOM and an SSD doesn't fragment like regular drives. I'll try the web cache deletion next time I encounter this though. Well, I'm sure that it's not a problem with the drive itself as I'm quite frequently moving large chunks of data between different drives. i kinda expected a bit more of a difference as it was.Īdded compressed backup sizes to show how size by itself doesn't mean anything (it's the amount of files and their compression ratio) if it had, the difference may be more significant. However the tests were not done during a high load time on steam store. Prepping/Allocating via TCP = 1minute 20seconds Prepping/Allocating via UDP = 1minute 20seconds (following tests were restores of already downloaded content, timer started immediate after "agree" was clicked and stopped as soon as the actual "installing" process began)
I finally got around to it and during my testing of tcp vs udp, it didn't really seem to make any difference at all. its the amount of small files that will slow it down more then the sheer size of the game. ^^Įdit: actually to be more accurate, the size of the game doesn't matter.
#Steam download preallocating install
i think it's time to replay doom soon anyways, so i'll shift some data around and make room for it and install it a few times. Sure thing though, i'll still test around with it a little later today.
#Steam download preallocating verification
if steam servers are finicky like i said, then the tcp connection will help that first step go faster, not the actual allocation process.īasically what i mean is if it is stuck at the very beginning of the allocation with no progression what so ever, then it is likely actually stuck on verification rather then allocation. i claimed it was a "partial/somewhat" fix because steam does not have the message prior to "allocating disk space" that states "checking online for ownership" that it actually does just before the allocation. and yes, if the allocation process has truly started (after the initial check to insure ownership) and it is still slow, then it has absolutely nothing to do with tcp/udp and it's simply cause it is a large game. The only way possible to reserve space it to fill it with data. i said using udp would help, but meant tcp helps. =)Įdit: had to add sdd, for some reason i stated old school at first only. but i'm sure we could find a game i already have installed and just keep deleting/restoring it for testing purposes sometime. i'd prefer it not be to extremely large though, as i already am a little tight on space.
#Steam download preallocating Offline
same reason offline mode will not allow restoring.īut as far as testing sometime sure.
it needs the internet to verify ownership. If you backup a game with steam backup, uninstall it, then disable the internet while on the steam client. using a tcp connection will help it get thru the B.S. if steam is under ddos, or just plain finicky, or on a crap internet, or slammed with an extremely large amount of traffic. but, they very very first thing steam does when you tell it to install, is check online to insure that the logged in user still/actually owns the game before it installs. it's to fill the hdd/sdd with "this data is used for xyz" so that 2/3's the way thru the download you can't run out of space, it already set aside the space it needed.