Steam steam steam...

[Arinoth]

I've essentially tried everything out there under the sun when it has come to trying to fix this. I've followed other people's similiar issues, as well as what they have out lined on their help page and nothing works. I've never gotten useful steam support from them in any minor past problems i had to figure out myself and i doubt they'll be able to help me with this major one. I just don't trust their support.

[MacJunky]

Okay, but the point is that you have tried everything you know, and you need to find something different to try. It is not like you have to pay steam per support thread or anything.

[Arinoth]

Fine, I made one, I'm expecting little to nothing useful from them

[Patramix]

ive had something similar append to me once, windows messed things up during install/copy of files, i had to go un the security tab of the steam folder options, and give full rights to all user groups/names in the list for it work properly.

[Arinoth]

I've already done that with no success unfortunately.

[On2wheels]

Originally Posted by Arinoth

Fine, I made one, I'm expecting little to nothing useful from them

Any response?

[Arinoth]

What a surprise, none whatsoever so far

[ipaine]

Originally Posted by Arinoth

None of the solutions appear to work, tried this plus half a dozen other things as well and now the only error i get is that steam.exe cannot be deleted as it already exists (no shit, you put it there installer). I've tried with giving added admin rights, by installing to a different folder, removing the regedit file (which then allowed me to completely nuke the folder that had anything left over in it leaving completely empty folders to install to), installing in a completely different directory and I continually now just get that steam cannot be edited or deleted as it already exists error.

I have run into this type of issue before with other programs. What I did was boot into a repair disk, mine was a winPE disk although your windows disk would work, and then from there I deleted the offending program folder. In your case get rid of the steam folder under program files as well as any under the hidden folder program data and anything under app data, watch out for save files though, maybe back up to another location first if you are concerned. Once you are done that then go back into your normal windows OS and then run a reg cleaner. My choice is always ccleaner as it works for me. So run that and let it clean up the registry (backup when asked) Once done that reboot and run reg cleaner again, hopefully there are no more offending keys. At that point you hopefully will be able to reinstall it.

One other option about the keys is to just install steam on another machine. At least then you could get to your games/keys.

Hope that helps.

[Arinoth]

Not even an email or follow up from steam about my problem still.

[lcdguy]

here is what i would try.

1. Copy your steamapps folder somewhere else so you don't have to redownload all the content.
2. Try to uninstall steam.
3. Try to reinstall steam.
4. Make sure you can atleast login to steam.
5. Shutdown steam
6. replace steam apps folder with copied one from before.

If the above doesn't work. I would also try the following. as in you can't uninstall it.

1. download a 30 day trial of iolo system mechanic pro
2. run the installer tool (checks for corrupted installers)
3. Remove steam
4. Run the registry checker tool and fix anything it finds
5. Delete the steam directory (if it can't be done in windows use a boot CD or try mounting the hard drive in another computer or in a USB enclosure.
6. Try reinstalling steam and continue from step 4 in the first set.

FYI... I have used system mechanic dozens of times and never experienced any ill effects of the black magic it does :)

I under stand your frustration as i recently had to re download my steam library (over 350GB) not fun.