How to fix Steam disk write error

Not much can spoil that feeling of excitement and apprehension when you’re downloading a new game on Steam other than encountering the dreaded Steam ‘disk write’ error, but luckily, there are ways to deal with it before it breaks the experience entirely.

As it happens, the Steam ‘disk write’ error can happen when you’re trying to download or update a game you bought on the Steam platform, or when launching a game that requires an update.

What is a Steam disk write error?

An error message displayed by the Steam app, the Steam ‘disk write’ error suggests that there was an issue preventing you from downloading, installing, or updating the game you purchased from the platform. Typically, it shows up in one of these forms:

• An error occurred while installing game title (disk write error): C:\Program Files (x86)\steam\steamapps\common\game_title
• An error occurred while updating game_title
• An error occurred while installing game_title

Why does a Steam disk write error happen?

There are several reasons why you might see this error message. These include write protection on the drive or Steam folder, defects in your hard drive, your antivirus or firewall blocking Steam from downloading and saving data, or corrupt or outdated files still hanging around in the Steam directory.

How to fix a Steam disk write error

Try these solutions:

1. Restarting Steam: Close Steam, reopen it, and download or start the game again.
2. Rebooting your computer: The same goes for your device – rebooting your PC could fix the error.
3. Free up space on your hard drive: Check how much free storage space you have and delete the apps and files you’re not using.
4. Removing write protection: Check if the Steam installation is write-protected by right-clicking on it. If it is, remove the read-only attribute.
5. Running Steam as an administrator: Oftentimes, simply running the offending software with elevated rights can fix weird issues like this one as it gives you extra permissions.
6. Deleting corrupted files: Go to the main Steam folder and the steamapps/common directory to see if there’s a 0 KB file with the same name as the game – delete it.
7. Verifying the game files’ integrity: In your Steam library, right-click on the game and select Properties -> Installed Files -> Verify integrity of game files, so Steam can automatically replace any problematic files.
8. Clearing Steam download cache: Steam’s download cache can also become corrupted and trigger errors, so go to Steam -> Settings – > Downloads -> Clear Cache, confirm and reboot.
9. Moving Steam to a different drive: At times, it’s your drive preventing Steam from writing to it, so try moving the Steam installation folder to a different one.
10. Turning off antivirus or adding exceptions: An antivirus might sometimes falsely flag Steam as a threat, preventing it from downloading and saving game data. Try turning it off and adding Steam as an exception if this fixes it.
11. Turning off the firewall: It’s the same with firewalls – try turning it off and testing if it’s worked, adding an exception if it has.
12. Reaching out to Steam: If all else fails, then Steam’s technical support team is your next stop.

Conclusion

All things considered, the Steam disk write error could be an easily solved problem, or it might require a bit of tinkering if you’re feeling comfortable. In the meantime, if other annoying errors are disrupting your gaming, such as the error code 268 in Roblox or the 504 gateway timeout error in Chrome, then check out our guides.