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I have a current copy of TF2 on Steam in my main PC. I have successfully moved copies of Steam games to my other PC. But with TF2, Steam is performing a 6GB download (6.5GB / 12.5GB). It is as if the backup didn't totally save the current image of TF2. The backup size is about 10GB.

Did anyone else experience it? How to avoid this (a.k.a perform a perfect no-download restore) ?

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    I'm thinking it might have something to do with TF2's other components, like the Source SDK 2007. You might have to backup and restore it too. – galacticninja Dec 3 '12 at 5:26
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I've come across this before, both with Steam's Restore from backup functionality and just simply copying the directory over. a few different methods have solved it for me.

Clicking Play

Sometimes, steam only THINKS it needs to download stuff. Clicking play, it seems to figure out that it has everything it needs, stops downloading and launches the game.

Verifying Local Game Cache

  • Right-Click the Game->Properties
  • Select the 'Local Files' tab.
  • Click 'Verify Integrity of Game Cache'

Steam will run through and verify that all the files have been downloaded and are ready to play. If any files are missing it will download them, but it wont be x/12Gb, it should only download missing files.

Delete and Re-restore

  • Right-Click the game -> Delete Local Content

This will delete the local files (obviously) but it will also stop any download in progress.

Re-run the restore from Steam Backup

Delete and Copy Directory

As above, Delete Local Content, except this time when it is done, close Steam (completely, make sure it isn't running in the taskbar), and copy over the TF2 directory from one PC to another.

Restart Steam, and click Play. It should just start, although it might run a Verify Game Cache by itself.

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    Normally, for such cases, it's not a real download, from what I experienced, at least in the most recent versions of Steam. It will just check all files when it looks like downloading. For each file, it will realize the file is already present, and skip to the next one. – Gnoupi Dec 3 '12 at 8:44
  • Which is where running a verify helps- because it verifies that it has every file that it needs – Robotnik♦ Dec 3 '12 at 22:22

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