How to Troubleshoot Steam “Stuck on Allocating Disk Space” Problem on Windows PC



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Steam is a well-known online platform that allows you to get and play your favorite computer games instead of going to the store and buying a physical copy. You can easily download a game directly to your computer. Although it is a stable platform, it can happen that when you download a game through Steam, you get an “Allocating Disk Space” message, and this message persists for too long while the game is being installed.

In this article, we will look at the problem of Steam Stuck On Allocating Disk Space on Windows 10 PC.

What causes Steam ‘Stuck on Allocating Disk Space’?

  • Problems with the Steam game download server
  • The firewall is blocking Steam from installing games
  • The Steam cache is blocking the installation of games

How to resolve the ‘Blocking on Allocating Disk Space’ issue on Steam?

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Open the Steam client again with administrative rights

  1. Right-click on the desktop taskbar and select Task Manager from the context menu to open it.
  2. Right-click the Steam.exe entry in the list and select End Task.
  3. In the same way, stop the other processes related to Steam.
  4. Right-click the Steam shortcut on your computer and select Open File Location on the shortcut menu.
  5. In the installation folder, locate the Steam.exe file, right-click it, and select Properties in the context menu.
  6. Go to the Compatibility tab and check the Run this program as administrator checkbox.
  7. Finally, click Apply and OK to confirm your changes.
  8. Then restart the Steam client on your desktop.

Clear the download cache

  1. Click on the Steam client on the desktop.
  2. Click the Steam button on the top menu bar and select Settings from the context menu.
  3. Click the Downloads tab and if you see the Clear Download Cache button, click it.
  4. Click OK to make sure you want to clear your local download cache.
  5. Then exit the Steam client and reopen it.
  6. You can then successfully complete the download/installation of the game, with Steam allocating memory space.

Rebooting your computer

Some users successfully solve the problem by rebooting the computer after the memory allocation has stalled. It’s hard to explain the reasons for this, but it works. So, if you are facing the problem of Steam allocating disk space on your computer, you can try this simple solution.



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Frequently Asked Questions

Clear the download cache. The problem of Steam locking up when allocating disk space can be caused by the Steam download cache. The download cache can block the installation of a game. Therefore, it is best to remove the download cache and then install the game.

This means that space in memory is reserved for the game. Where exactly on the hard drive, no one can say.

In the Steam client, open the settings panel by selecting "Steam -> Settings" in the client menu in the upper left corner. In the settings, select the "Downloads" tab and find the "Clear Downloads Cache" button at the bottom.

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