My Xbox One can store games on a external hard drive and play then with no problems, why cant i store Steam games on a external hard drive on a PC and play them from the drive? Install Games in Different Locations. If you're low on space on the drive you have Steam installed, you can move the Steam folder to a different location. Here's an example of how to move the Steam installation between two hard drives: Log out and exit Steam; Navigate to the folder where Steam is installed (by default: C:Program Files.

About Steam Disk Write/Read Error

Usually, when installing or updating a popular Steam game, such as Dota 2, Fallout 4, Tree of Savior and Team Fortress, you may encounter an error that suggests a Steam disk write error or perhaps disk read error. You can refer to the error details and related screenshots.

An error occurred while updating [game title]
An error occurred while installing [game title]

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As you can tell, the extra information in the parenthesis behind the detailed error message is disk related. So, what disk problems would bring about such failure in daily game update and installation?

In conclusion, the disk write or read error comes, to a large extent, from some bad sectors on your hard drive, or your hard drive is failing and the disk is write protected in aspects of scratches, corruption, virus and specific permissions. Thus, to have Steam disk problems solved, you need to take prompt actions to repair the hard drive in question.

How to Fix Steam Disk Write/Read Error in Windows 10/8/7

In addition to the basic troubleshooting for Steam disk errors provided by Steam Support, including restart computer, clear download cache, reinstall Steam or move the Steam installation to other location, we come up with four advanced solutions that proved to be more potent in removing Steam disk write or read error thoroughly.

Fix 1: Verify integrity for Steam game files

Try to verify integrity for Steam games files at first if you see games keeps crashing or their models missing unknowingly.

Step 1: Reboot system and then launch Steam.

Step 2: Select 'LIBRASY' tab and right click the game that sends disk errors and select 'Properties'.

Step 3: Click 'LOCAL FILES' tab, and then you can see 'VERIFY INTEGRITY OF GAME FILES…' button. Click it.

Step 4: Steam starts verifying game files, which may take a couple of minutes. Please note that some files may fail to verify, which is normal for most Stem games. That's because these files are local configuration files and they cannot be disturbed as part of this action.

Step 5: When all files are validated successfully, you can retry installing updates and see whether the disk error is removed.

Fix 2: Remove disk write protection

When a disk is write-protected, you're prevented from modifying it, such as formatting, writing data, installing programs on it. That's the other possible reason why you receive disk errors on Steam. Simply use the diskpart command to clear write protection and remove the error.

Step 1: Open administrative 'Command Prompt'.

Step 2: Type these commands one by one and press Enter key after each:

diskpart

list disk

select disk # (# is the number of the hard drive with which you're getting disk error)

attributes disk clear readonly

Step 3: You may now close Command Prompt and replug the hard drive and check if the Steam disk error disappeared.

Alternative - Use write protection removal tool

If you are not professional in computing management and not familiar with command lines, don't worry. EaseUS R&D team has promoted a fresh kit for helping you resolve the write-protection issue on your hard drive, external hard drive, USB or SD card, etc., devices.

EaseUS Tools M is a practical computer fixing tool that is safe and light-weighted. It's a perfect alternative to the command line.

Use this one-click tool to solve the write-protection issues on your own:

Step 1: DOWNLOAD and install EaseUS Tools M for free.

Step 2: Run EaseUS Tools M on your PC, choose the 'Write Protection' mode.

Step 3: Select the device which is now 'Write-Protected' and click 'Disable' to remove the protection.

Fix 3: Check and repair bad sectors

Starting from this approach, you'll need additional help from a third-party free partition manager tool, which is EaseUS Partition Master. First of all, the check partition feature within is extremely easy-to-use in checking and repairing hard drive partition errors and bad sectors.

Step 1: Open EaseUS Partition Master on your computer. Then locate the disk, right-click the partition you want to check, and choose 'Check File System'.

Step 2: In the Check File System window, keep the 'Try to fix errors if found' option selected and click 'Start'.

Step 3: The software will begin checking your partition file system on your disk. When it has completed, click 'Finish'.

Fix 4: Replace failing hard drive

We feel bad if the hard drive has developed serious problems and it's time to upgrade the hard disk to a new one. It's a permanent solution for either disk read error or disk write error for good. To replace a failing hard drive to a new one, use EaseUS Partition Master's clone disk function.

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Step 1: Select the source disk.

Open EaseUS Partition Master. Right-click the disk that you want to copy or clone. Then, select 'Clone'.

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Step 2: Select the target disk.

Choose the wanted HDD/SSD as your destination and click 'Next' to continue.

Step 3: View the disk layout and edit the target disk partition size.

Then click 'Continue' when the program warns it will wipe out all data on the target disk. (If you have valuable data on the target disk, back up it in advance.)

You can select 'Autofit the disk', 'Clone as the source' or 'Edit disk layout' to customize your disk layout. (Select the last one if you want to leave more space for C drive.)

Step 4: Execute the operation.

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Click the 'Execute the operation' option and click 'Apply' to start the disk cloning process.