Steam boots up with "Steam folder not writeable" every other time I turn my PC on

[the_randomizer]

Granted, it's easy to fix, and from what I've Googled, it's caused by a game's download that got interrupted in some fashion. I don't know why its happening every other time I boot my PC up, or why I have to clear the download cache and sign in every time to fix it. I noticed this happening after every major Windows update, and sure, I could ignore updates, but is that really a good idea?

One permanent solution is to move the entire installation for Steam to another drive, as I'm starting to think one of my HDDs is getting long in the tooth (I've had it for seven years or so), and may be causing the installation to be corrupted. I also have about 19 games installed to that drive, so I can try the guide here:

https://support.steampowered.com/kb_article.php?ref=7418-YUBN-8129

I can test when I get back from work and see what the crap is going on and why it's causing me such grief so frequently. It's not installed in C:/Program Files, which has been known to cause this issue with some people, and currently not enrolled in beta releases as I don't trust it. Games work fine, I've been backing up games to a USB drive in case I have to completely reinstall Steam, and I may have to (oh what a joy that will be ) so what is the recommended course of action from here on out? I suspect moving it to a new drive/library as the main installation location will resolve it, but I'm not 100% sure. Thank you.

 

[Jacklack3]

My friend had a similar issue, running Steam in administrator fixed the problem for him.

 

[tech3475]

As a quick test, you could try “chkdsk (drive): /f” to see if it’s a basic filesystem issue.

I’ve been using Steam on a different drive for years now, I personally prefer it since it makes reinstalling windows a bit easier, just have the Steam installer reinstall to the steam location and it’s more or less back the way it was.

edit:

I would also do a full check using the hdd makers utility as well as a precaution.

 

[the_randomizer]

As a quick test, you could try “chkdsk (drive): /f” to see if it’s a basic filesystem issue.
I’ve been using Steam on a different drive for years now, I personally prefer it since it makes reinstalling windows a bit easier, just have the Steam installer reinstall to the steam location and it’s more or less back the way it was.
edit:
I would also do a full check using the hdd makers utility as well as a precaution.

I never install Steam in C:/Program Files (fortunately) so I know that's not an issue. Could be the HDD itself, have had it for some time. I've only recently installed a new M.2 SSD as a means to eventually replace that HDD, so I can move
the installation to that drive instead of the old HDD.

My friend had a similar issue, running Steam in administrator fixed the problem for him.

I did that, actually, and Steam freaked out saying "you shouldn't run this blah blah blah or it will cause incompatibility blah" or something stupid like that. Is that really the only way around it? Short of that, I'll probably have to end up moving the entire installation to a new drive as the new default install location. Not sure how that will affect my other steam libraries though.


Edit: Ran Western Digital's Dashboard tool, both mechanical drives are healthy, so I know they're not failing, but could still have some corrupted Steam files that need repairing. But yeah, I'll try moving the Steam folder to the new SSD.