[SOLVED] Folder keeps resetting to 'Read-only'

[esq.david.holmes]

For background, I am trying to update some games on Steam, and they're giving me a 'Disk Write Error'.

I believe I have traced this down to the install folder, as it's only affected those that are on a different drive. The Steam folder on that drive, however, is set to 'Read-only'.

I have changed the security permissions, used CMD to change folder attribute, but it just keeps resetting.
The only thing I have not been able to try is disabling 'controlled folder access', as I have a third party Antivirus and I am not getting the option in Windows Security.

If you need more information, I'll gladly provide as long as it will help resolve this.

Thanks!

 

[ex_bubblehead]

Folders can NOT be made read only. That flag on a folder simply indicates that there are one or more files in the folder with special attributes set. Your problem lies elsewhere.

 

[esq.david.holmes]

Okay... So what do I do?

 

[ex_bubblehead]

"Disk Write Error" could be any of 10,000+ things.

What, specifically, have you done to troubleshoot this?
Is this directory one of the many system owned directories?
It's entirely possible that the drive in question is in an inconsistent state, or is in the act of failing. Have you run chkdsk against the drive?
It's also possible that your mucking about with file/directory permissions has placed things in a state that cannot be repaired short of delete/reinstall.

 

[esq.david.holmes]

I have restarted my system, restarted Steam, started Steam as Admin, done the disk check, deleted downloading file, verified file integrity of the specified games, the directory is not related to the system, it is on a clean HD that is just for bulk game storage

 

[Fatalzo]

My old computer (Well before I even got the laptop before my last pc) had the same issue.

I hate to tell you this, but your hard drive is rotting. Let me explain.

So no, your platters are not infested with bacteria and mold. However, hard drives can get physically injured which causes them to quickly rot away.

Some iron filings may have come out of line and/or popped out of the platter. This causes an effect known as bad sectors. It's likely a bad sector is inside of the NTFS header for the Steamapps folder.

Try opening CMD as an admin, and run the following command:

chkdsk (whatever drive has the problem)

Bad sectors aren't just static. They grow exponentially. WIthin a month my old hard drive grew from 4KB in bad sectors to 700MB and a platter developed a scratch and the disk was ultimately killed as the boot sector got fried.