Downloading Steam content without it being on your account? - Hardware & Software

Surprisingly, I am not talking about Warez. Basically I purchased Dirt 2, but don't have the best internet connection, so my mate with really good net has offered to download the content for me if I run him to the airport at 7am tomorrow. Now obviously I'm not going to have the time to go to his house and log into my account and wait while it downloads, so I was wondering if there's a way for him to download the content tonight and then I can just chuck it on my external HDD tomorrow when I go to pick him up. Your ideas?

You can give him your password, if you want. Otherwise there isn't any way to do that unless he has the game on his account.

Nah, I'd rather not give out my password. My account's worth too much to risk losing it (not that I don't trust my friend, it's just that I don't know who also uses his computer). If I can't find a way to do it, then I will just wait till the next big LAN that I go to and see if someone there has it.

He needs to be logged into your account for him to download it, And even if he downloads if to his computer, how will you get it?

[QUOTE=Nisd;20894313]And even if he downloads if to his computer, how will you get it?[/QUOTE] I think you missed the part about me driving him to the airport at 7am tomorrow. I would just take my external HDD with me.

Change password, give him account, let him download, change password again.

Tell him to go to [url]steam://install/12840[/url] in a web browser.

[QUOTE=thf;20896888]Tell him to go to [url]steam://install/12840[/url] in a web browser.[/QUOTE] Doesn't work, just brings up the Dirt 2 store page.

Oh, i thought it worked for all games, guess i was wrong then :)

There are ways, but they require hacked steam loaders.

Make him log into the account, start the download. Change the password while he's inlogged?

[QUOTE=thf;20896888]Tell him to go to [url]steam://install/12840[/url] in a web browser.[/QUOTE] That was the first thing I tried and it didn't work :/ [editline]08:00AM[/editline] Not to worry, he's on a plane now, so I will just get it when he gets back.

You could get him to install something like LogMeIn on his PC and then you could install steam, login, download the game, run the backup wizard, copy it to a folder then uninstall steam.

I don't think he has any way of seeing your password if you log in yourself and make sure the "remember me" box is unchecked.

I'm not sure you can just copy the game folder to an external hard drive and it will work. I've tried this many times and steam won't recognize it, steam will just try to download and install it like it isn't even there. But I found a way. 1. Open Steam Games tab 2. Right-click on desired game 3. Select 'Backup game files...' 4. a. If you would like to copy more than one game, then select the game(s) you wish to copy. b. Click 'Next' 5. Change the destination to the desired one, probably being somewhere on your external hard drive. 6. a. If you want to change the backup file name, do so. b. hit the drop down arrow under File Size c. select custom d. enter "99999999" in the file size bar, this will make the file uncompressed leaving it as it's original size. 7. Select next And that's that. [editline]11:08PM[/editline] Now to put the downloaded game onto your computer from your external: 1. Go to Drive that contains the game data. 2. Find the folder called what-ever you named the game. 3. Open that, then open the next folder that is called something similar to the first folder. 4. Open folder Disk_1 5. Run steambackup.exe [editline]11:10PM[/editline] A window may pop up saying that it didn't "install" correctly, disregard that and click that it did install correctly. 6. Go to the Steam Backup window 7. Click 'Restore 'steam game here' backup 8. A steam window will pop up. Follow the instruction from there.

While it's likely too late now. Don't forget steam has E-mail verification. If you did lend him your account to download the game, he would not be able to change any of the details without having access to your email address to verify the changes.

Easiest way would just download normally. Doing anything else would take longer.

[QUOTE=Zoo;20909575]I'm not sure you can just copy the game folder to an external hard drive and it will work. I've tried this many times and steam won't recognize it, steam will just try to download and install it like it isn't even there. But I found a way. 1. Open Steam Games tab 2. Right-click on desired game 3. Select 'Backup game files...' 4. a. If you would like to copy more than one game, then select the game(s) you wish to copy. b. Click 'Next' 5. Change the destination to the desired one, probably being somewhere on your external hard drive. 6. a. If you want to change the backup file name, do so. b. hit the drop down arrow under File Size c. select custom d. enter "99999999" in the file size bar, this will make the file uncompressed leaving it as it's original size. 7. Select next And that's that. [editline]11:08PM[/editline] Now to put the downloaded game onto your computer from your external: 1. Go to Drive that contains the game data. 2. Find the folder called what-ever you named the game. 3. Open that, then open the next folder that is called something similar to the first folder. 4. Open folder Disk_1 5. Run steambackup.exe [editline]11:10PM[/editline] A window may pop up saying that it didn't "install" correctly, disregard that and click that it did install correctly. 6. Go to the Steam Backup window 7. Click 'Restore 'steam game here' backup 8. A steam window will pop up. Follow the instruction from there.[/QUOTE] Or copy gcf/ncf files?

[QUOTE=Lego399;20921671]Or copy gcf/ncf files?[/QUOTE] Games that aren't Source/GoldSrc don't store any files/data in the NCF files. They're just for indexing so Steam knows where to download the files the game needs into the [i]common[/i] folder.

[QUOTE=JIAC;20921794]Games that aren't Source/GoldSrc don't store any files/data in the NCF files. They're just for indexing so Steam knows where to download the files the game needs into the [i]common[/i] folder.[/QUOTE] Incidentally, that's probably why some people have this problem: [QUOTE=Zoo;20909575]I'm not sure you can just copy the game folder to an external hard drive and it will work. I've tried this many times and steam won't recognize it, steam will just try to download and install it like it isn't even there.[/QUOTE] If you don't copy the ncf files as well then Steam won't recognize the stuff you do copy.

[QUOTE=cdlink14;20914227]While it's likely too late now. Don't forget steam has E-mail verification. If you did lend him your account to download the game, he would not be able to change any of the details without having access to your email address to verify the changes.[/QUOTE] Only if you verified your email though, I haven't so I just get a notice saying that it changed.

[QUOTE=^0mKTank;20922480]Only if you verified your email though, I haven't so I just get a notice saying that it changed.[/QUOTE] Well if you haven't verified your account, then it's obviously not important to you, hence you wouldn't care about lending it to friends.