Steam is being a little fickley for me

[drakshdw]

Hello.

Today I had an unfortunate issue with Skyrim that lead me to uninstalling completely (deleted local content via Steam then deleted the Skyrim folder from Steam/steamapps/common).

Fortunately, I keep a back up of the bsa files so that I don't have such a huge download when I need to reinstall via Steam. I placed the bsa files I have into C:/Program Files (x86)/Steam/steamapps/common/Skyrim/Data/ and start up Steam. I click Install for Skyrim, click okay for the install path (C:Program Files (x86)/Steam) and Steam starts downloading all 5.1gb.

No amount of fiddling with the folder is letting me bypass having to download the entirity of Skyrim again. I can't afford to download 5gb, I have a data usage limit.

 

Is there anyway to tell Steam that I HAVE those files and they're in the CORRECT location? I looked in the Steam/steamapps/downloading/(some number I don't recall atm)/Data folder and it has all the Skyrim bsa files, their sizes indicate that it's the entirity of them and not just partial files. I've tried to move them into the Skyrim/Data folder with no success on shortening the file size.

Recently I upgraded my HDD and OS. When I moved my Skyrim folder from my old HDD to my new one I had to reinstall the game via Steam, but the installation went from 0% to 99% in a matter of seconds, only missing about 300mb of files (for whatever reason). This time around it's not, and I don't understand why nor how to fix it.

 

Anyone able to help me? Once again, I cannot download the entire game, nor do I want to since I already have the bsa files.

[IsharaMeradin]

Unfortunately you told Steam to delete all local content. It therefore believes that all content is gone and must be restored. If you had simply deleted the data folder minus the stock BSA files, you could have verified the game's content and been done much quicker. At this stage you have no choice but to download the entire game (unless you had purchased a physical copy). If you have a physical copy you can re-install the base version from there and only download the patch updates from Steam.

[TonyTitan]

I know how you feel with the download cap....I'm a satellite internet user and there is nothing more frustrating then having to deal with these DRM policies because others kept pirating crap.

 

As Ishara mentioned, I too think that since you told Steam to delete the local files, you may have screwed yourself.....meaning that you may just have to take this one on the chin and download everything again during off peak hours from your ISP.

 

And I'm not certain if you know of the STEP procedure for returning Skyrim back to a pristine vanilla game....It sounds like you are. But if not, follow This Outline and you should be fine if you ever have to do this again in the future.

 

Best of luck to you!

[drakshdw]

Thanks for the replies. Looks like Skyrim is dead to me until I have a different ISP (which could be months). Ah well, I'll just focus on other games I've been neglecting.