Is it bad to play a game while downloading a game on Steam?

[ImperialCavalry]

Hello,

I was wondering, is it bad to download a game and playing a game at same time? I ask this in terms of usage of HDD, I have a nearly 3 years old Seagate Harddisk and it works really good even its age, I have zero bad sectors as Speecy shows, playing all my games on this disk, just my Windows runs on SSD. I mean, does a game can use my harddisk while playing a game? I'm downloading GTA V since last night since its a HUGE 61GB to download, I left my Computer open at night, and still downloading. I can see the Disk usage(for downloading game) on steam library, its around 900KB-2,5MB and always stays in that rate

so in short words, whats the common sense in this topic? its normal to play a game while PC downloads a game?

thanks in advance
and a good day

 

[R_1]

Steam will allow only one at a time. if you launch a game from steam while it is downloading it will pause the download and free the network for the game. when you end the game the download will continue. this is how steam works for me anyway.
I have observed this behavior in Linux and Windows

 

[Shaun o]

It`s fine, not a problem.

But you may experience while playing a game and downloading at the same time in some cases a lag spike in the game you are playing.

But you will do no damage to the hard drives of the system, or anything else.

 

[ImperialCavalry]

Thanks! I'm playing a game outside of steam, so steam downloads alone, thanks for quick answers

 

[Yoav123]

So if I play let's say battlefield 4 while downloading a heavy game on steam it would not harm anything whatsoever?