The dirty disk error message

[currawong]

This is a brief summary of a problem I've solved, and an attempt by Bethesda Technical Support to help.

 

I downloaded "Hearthfire" and started up Skyrim, and the game opened well, but when it loaded a save, by either selecting a previous save or "continuing" the most recent save, I got the dirty disk error message. When I tried to load a new game, it also opened well until the game tried to do an auto-save. And again it gave the "unreadable disk" error message.

 

After making sure the disk had no dirt or scratches, I wrote to Bethesda Technical Support. While I was waiting for the reply, I found that the Hearthfire add-on had not downloaded correctly. So I deleted it and downloaded it again. This time it worked correctly without any error messages.

 

 

Someone named Vibeke wrote back saying

 

Hello,

 

Thank you for contacting Bethesda technical support.

 

Please check the game disk to see if it somehow has become damaged.

 

 

So I wrote back saying:

 

I was very amused by your statement "Please check the game disk to see if it somehow has become damaged." :) Of course this is the first thing that *everybody* does when they get the dirty disk error message! If you get an enquiry about that error message, you can bet your bottom dollar that they've already done that! And of course I had already done that, too, otherwise there would be no need to write to you, would there! :)

 

The dirty disk routine is a well-known catch-all error message that Bethesda uses to try and avoid blame for their mistakes. It is saying "If you've got a problem, then it must be your fault, not ours. You must have dirtied your disk, so don't blame us." :)

 

Fortunately I found that the add-on "Hearthfire" had not downloaded correctly, so I downloaded it again, and this time it worked fine. Thanks for your attempt to help, though, Vibeke! :)

 

Best wishes

[Staind716]

Is this on pc?