How to repair a broken Steam Install

PCunicorn

PCunicorn

Active Member
My Steam install was broken, and I had a few hundred GB of games. So I didn't want to just uninstall Steam. And the game I was playing relied heavily on Steam, so if Steam crashed, so did my game. So here's what I did to repair Steam, without uninstalling all my games:

1. Go to your Steam Install folder.
2.Delete every file and folder, except steam.exe and SteamApps (this is where your games are installed).

Simple as that! Steam will basically reinstall itself (but it won't delete SteamApps), and hopefully this will fix all your problems :)
 
Last edited by a moderator:
I stickied this post for future reference for anyone who encounters an issue. Also just changed the title (removed Guide: )
 
PCunicorn said:
My Steam install was broken, and I had a few hundred GB of games. So I didn't want to just uninstall Steam. And the game I was playing relied heavily on Steam, so if Steam crashed, so did my game. So here's what I did to repair Steam, without uninstalling all my games:

1. Go to your Steam Install folder.
2.Delete every file and folder, except steam.exe and SteamApps (this is where your games are installed).

Simple as that! Steam will basically reinstall itself (but it won't delete SteamApps), and hopefully this will fix all your problems :)
Click to expand...

Thank you for the info!

How does a steam install breaks itself?
 
This is also a good way to back your games up if you reinstall.

Just copy the steamapps data and throw it in the new installation of steam.
 
Punk said:
Thank you for the info!

How does a steam install breaks itself?
Click to expand...

Mine broke when I opened 1 steam Game right after my system booted up. AND there was a new update. So it downloaded that 2 times, at the same time, with a slight delay. After that i got a fatal error and couldn't do anything with steam.
 
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