Steam game update compression.

[bob]

So my friend and I were going to have a quick blast on Payday 2 on Saturday. Loaded up my laptop and fired up Steam. Straight away, Steam said that Payday 2 needed to download updates in order to play. Fine, thinks I, I'll just wait, but after 20 of downloading, my computer says there's no space on my hard drive.

 

So I check, and the downloads folder for Steam has hit 17gb and is still going.

 

I clear as much as I can off my SSD, but it's only 110gb, and payday 2 + this insane update file is taking up nearly half of it.

 

Eventually, I got to the point where I couldn't delete anything else off my laptop, and Steam was still trying to download the update (21gb and counting).

 

I gave up. There's no way to play that game now. I checked, and the update is only 4.5gb, but the way it installs is to uncompress itself first, and then delete all the guff, so the interim size can be enormous.

 

This is why I'm firmly console over PC, because this shit is ridic.

[Jonnas]

So I check, and the downloads folder for Steam has hit 17gb and is still going.

 

Whut? My entire Steam installation folder (which includes the downloads folder) only has a little over 500 MB.

 

What isyour folder filled with? Genuine question, not trying to be snarky or anything. It might have a lot of unnecessary crap.

[bob]

Yeah, once installed, it deletes it all. It's only during the updating process that it unzips and dumps all this crap. But I didn't have enough space to allow it to do so, so couldn't install the update.

 

I looked on forums, and apparently it's a common complaint (especially with Payday 2).

[MoogleViper]

As your SSD is only 110gb I'm guessing you've got a secondary HDD. Can't you install it there?

[Jonnas]

Yeah, once installed, it deletes it all. It's only during the updating process that it unzips and dumps all this crap. But I didn't have enough space to allow it to do so, so couldn't install the update.

 

I looked on forums, and apparently it's a common complaint (especially with Payday 2).

 

Oh, I thought you meant that space was permanently there. I am slow today

 

Do you know the total size that Payday needs?

[bob]

Oh, I thought you meant that space was permanently there. I am slow today

 

Do you know the total size that Payday needs?

Well the game is around 30gb, but no, I have no idea what the final unzipped size of the update might be.

 

As your SSD is only 110gb I'm guessing you've got a secondary HDD. Can't you install it there?

Yeah, but that would mean either redownloading the whole game, or transferring the whole 50gb worth across to the other HDD, which would take years, since it's done through an SATA connection (I think? It might even be older than that. It's slow. )

 

That would appear to be my only option though. I think downloading the whole game again and trying to play it off my slower HDD drive might be the way to go.

[Shorty]

110GB is a bit small these days. If you don't use an external to store the majority of large installations and expect it to be functional as a gaming laptop, you will certainly run into these problems. I know that's not much help. Check out the free program WinDirStat to see if there's anywhere you're using up a lot of space that you might not have thought of. Disk cleanup might get rid of a lot of old installation files etc..

 

512GB SSDs have dropped quite a lot in price over the last year. Once your current issue is fixed you might want to consider an upgrade.

 

I know what you're saying about the plug-and-play simplicity of a console but at least with a computer you have options when you run out of room. With a PS4 on the other hand whilst you can easily upgrade to 2TB, once you've filled that you're stuffed.

[bob]

110GB is a bit small these days. If you don't use an external to store the majority of large installations and expect it to be functional as a gaming laptop, you will certainly run into these problems. I know that's not much help. Check out the free program WinDirStat to see if there's anywhere you're using up a lot of space that you might not have thought of. Disk cleanup might get rid of a lot of old installation files etc..

 

512GB SSDs have dropped quite a lot in price over the last year. Once your current issue is fixed you might want to consider an upgrade.

 

I know what you're saying about the plug-and-play simplicity of a console but at least with a computer you have options when you run out of room. With a PS4 on the other hand whilst you can easily upgrade to 2TB, once you've filled that you're stuffed.

Yeah, it was all I could afford at the time. Not very future-proofed.

 

It's not really a gaming laptop, as I only usually have one Steam game installed at once. Up until now that's been fine to install on the SSD with plenty of room to spare. I never run into trouble on consoles either, as I only tend to buy a couple of games a year. I've never filled one up!

 

I might look into upgrading the SSD actually, although it's time that I lack now, rather than money.

[EEVILMURRAY]

I run all my (Steam) games off my HD whilst Windows runs off of an SSD. May be a ballache moving/redownloading stuff, especially if you plan on getting everything on at once. Works just fine.