Steam Reinstall Issues

[Gerrard]

OK, I'm tired and fed up, so this is a bit of a rant, which I'll probably realise is all my fault tomorrow morning!

Anyone, I've managed to build my new computer (sort of), installed Win7 and thought I would reinstall Steam and all my games on it.

Now, I used Steam to make backup files from my old hard drive yesterday with the impression that I could just run them on my new install and it would simply install them, without the need to download anything (expect maybe TF2 which seems to be updated daily!). However, I was trying to reinstall my Half Life collection, and noticed it was taking bloody ages and my (slow) Internet connection flashing like hell. After I stopped it halfway and restarted Steam, I noticed it appears to be trying to download a load of stuff for the games. Is this normal? If so, what does the backup do if it doesn't include all the updates? Am I better off just plugging in my old hard drive and copy the game files directly across?

Another things that's annoying me as well was when I closed Steam, the icon disappeared, but the process still ran in the background downloading. I had to go to Task Manager to shut it down manually. Again, is this just me being impatient, or just normal for Steam? I'm pretty certain this has happened before on my old computer.

As I said, I'm pretty tired and am now giving up until tomorrow. It's been at least two years since I reinstalled Windows, and hopefully I won't have to go through this again for at least another two if it's going to be this much pain and stress! Not to mention I've yet to get to grips with Win7 (gone from straight from XP, ignoring Vista like the plague!)

[Grymdawg]

Hello Gerrard

If you're re-installing the client and its re-installing all your games it might take a while yeah.

In my experience, when the process runs but the icon has dissapeared the client is still running but it doesnt download anything, this happened when my steam updated and then i downloaded arkham asylum.

You can get the old client files from your machine and drag and drop the files into the steam folder, it works for Call of Duty 4 anyways (i didnt want to lose my ranks etc).

I wouldnt say your post is a rant, steam is a total pain in the arse sometimes.

[joel_spencer]

Steam is okay with installing the tiny client then dragging your old folder over, though obviously don't do that if there was a problem with steam or you had a virus. As I remember Steam does run in the background if you set it to auto-start with windows. I install windows on machines about twice a day so I've developed lots of shortcuts (can't really do a customized slip stream install as every system is different). It's worth doing about every 9 months for the average gamer.

[Salazaar]

I did exactly the same thing when I went over to the RC of 7, Steam 'backup' barely worked at all.

However, I switched from the RC to a legit version of 7 yesterday (with the associated wipe and complete reinstall) and since I still have the complete directory structure of the old steam install on a seperate drive, I just reinstalled Steam into the old directory and it picked up everything that was installed there perfectly!

Just be careful that I think some games still keep user data and save games in other locations (i.e. My Documents or other user locations) so you may need to have a hunt around and make a few seperate backups.

Simples.

[Mutley]

I've been doing exactly the same thing. Going from Windows XP 32 bit to Windows 7 64 bit.

I backed up all my games using Steam backup (why-oh-why does the backup not include game saves!?), then restored under W7. A number of games restored completely from the backup. A few (the HL2 based ones) required more downloading. My assumption was that being a restored from 32bit XP, some extra bits were required for running under W7 64bit...dunno what though.

Like the OP, I'm also going through the adjustment process getting used to W7 - where is everything!? Like it on the whole though....stuff just seems to work.

Being used to XP, I was preparing for lots of driver installs, and config tweaks etc. But I just installed, and it worked.

Of course the thing thats been a PITA is my Creative X-Fi. But its a Creative product, so it goes without saying ;-)

[GheeTsar]

I had a go at using the Steam backup tool this weekend and had a similar experience. I'd already made the mistake of assuming it would backup save games too (why on earth not?), so had that one covered, but I had forgotten just how slow it is to reinstall. Abuot 30Gb of games took about 5 hours to reinstall, but as I had ensured all my games were up to date before I backup them up it didn't need to download anything. It did do it all in the end without a problem, but just SO slow.

[Gerrard]

I just copied everything over in the end, and it seemed to work for the most part. It may well be that having 64bit means it'll download more; it seemed confined to games with the Source engine. It was nice after installing Win7 to find everything in Device Manager had actually installed.

[MaddAussie]

mmmm I wonder if its because x64 puts 32 progs in its own x86 directory I wonder if Steam isn't clever enough to restore the files there and hence redownloads them?

[Phage]

I only cut over the Steamapps directory from a copy on my external drive.
https://support.steampowered.com/kb_...p?id=3&t=qanda

But Steam is less than intuitive, and there's no support response.

[mac124]

I tried the steam backup thing once, never again it just didn't work at all and i had to redownload everything, like most of the others have said i just copy the whole steam directory over now, and the game saves, and for the most part it picks up where it left off.

Yes you are correct in thinking the halflife stuff does download 64bit "stuff" mine did the same too when going to 64bit vista, almost everything else worked first time, except juiced which for some reason i had to redownload.