Steam question

I need to re-format my laptop right, and my steam folder is about 20gig's and I really dont wish to re-download that all on dial-up, so I'm wondering, if I copied the steam folder onto some dvd's, reformat and then paste it back onto my computer, where I found it, will that work? Will I still have all my games and all I have to do is check for an update or something?

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Aaron's Stuff

their is a option to back up anything you have onto a cd. Just right click on the game name in tour "my games list". Just make sure you save your sdk stuff on your own.

your going to need a lot of cd's

Can't you connect them via a crossover ethernet cable?

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Blog: www.playingarchitecture.net
LinkedIn: Eric Lancon
Twitter:@Riven202

Why are you formating your hard drive? (and what type of formatting. ex: through Windows?)

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Blame it on Microsoft, God does.

I'm gonna do the format in bios, than gonna reinstall windows.

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Aaron's Stuff

You're doing a low level format? Why? I mean, I wouldn't suggest wiping the disk anyway unless you're altering something drastic (even then there's ways around it). Whatever.

Just delete the partition instead of ensuring every little pit on the entire disc is zeroed out (you can do this during the windows install, if it's 2000 or newer). Even if you wanted to hide information from the FBI, that still wouldn't do it!

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Blame it on Microsoft, God does.

You can move your whole steam folder, as long as you delete clientregistry.blob before starting steam again. I did that with my old computer too.

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:: Forceflow.be :: Nuclear Dawn developer

Ahhh thankyou forceflow.

The reason I want to re-format is because I'm so stupid, I should have known, I downloaded a Key gen from the most dodegy'est site I've ever seen. Never download key generators folks, there all full of viruses.

So forceflow, I just copy the files back and steam will load and all the games will come up, if I do your method?

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Aaron's Stuff

Theres a back up option in steam arron, I suggest you use it because it lowers the file size significantly enough to burn it on a CD/DVD, plus its just plain safer.

File->Backup games....

Follow the setup process to select DVD/CD options, so it know how many files to create.

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Posting And You

I know this isn't what you want to hear, but if you downloaded a Key
Gen to the point where you feel a complete system swipe is necessary,
wouldn't you want to redownload Steam and such from scratch,
just to be absolutely 100% positive that there's nothing hiding in
there? Kind of like how you burn all your sheets and get new ones
if you find you have lice.

Just out of curiousity, was that keygen from seriall?

I'm pretty sure that the steam '.gcf' files can't get infected from viruses. I hear that only applications like '.exe' can get infected, is this true?

Anyway, this virus seems (or was) very destructive. The settings in hammer are all scrwed up, it keeps re-setting the defults for my applications and windows settings, lags up the whole computer and after about 1 hour I have to restart because the thing consumes all my ram and every now and then some programs will just stop responding.

But I have re-formatted and steam is up, thankyou so much for the help guys.

I dont remember where it was from, but it was from some dodgey website with the word 'serial' in it. The keygen was for milkshape 3d. I'm trying to crack it. 3DS max is way to hard for me and I cant find a plugin for 9.0.

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Aaron's Stuff

Anything can be infected with a virus. Anything stored as a binary sequence, anyway.

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Blame it on Microsoft, God does.

can't you try the customary stuff, like starting in safe mode and trying to delete it from there?

Anything can be infected with a virus. Anything stored as a
binary sequence, anyway.

I know I'm going to sound ignorant, but what else is there on a computer? Things you've printed off?

Anything can be infected with a virus. Anything stored as a
binary sequence, anyway.

I know I'm going to sound ignorant, but what else is there on a computer? Things you've printed off?

Duh, magic.

Yeah, see?

Quantum energy?

There are computers that don't store information in binary. (Like all the computers before binary was put to use). It was really a cover my bases sort of remark, because there are computers in existence that use a different system. However, that isn't to say viruses couldn't be written for them, it's just, if the system can't read you malicious code how ever will it execute it?

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Blame it on Microsoft, God does.

@ Beetle : Well the virus was spread to many files, but there was a file called mgrs.exe that kept attempting to acces the internet. Whenever I deleted it in safe mode, it would just come back on the next restart. I had pop ups to, there real hard to get rid of.

@ Crono : But dosen't the virus have to execute itself. Does this mean that, say jpegs can get viruses?

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Aaron's Stuff

Of course a virus can be embedded into a jpeg file.

All this means is that some piece of binary (compiled code, most likely written in asm for a very general platform, say IA-32 architecture processors), is written in with the file ... pretty much anywhere. It doesn't need to be explicitly executed, all that needs to happen is the binary data be loaded into memory then it will be executed at some point.

So, here's a quick lesson, just because you're learning some programming stuff now, if you accept input ... from anywhere (for example, reading in data) ... you need to check it. If you don't, people can write whatever they like there. A very common type of attack on web-pages running something like PHP is when you fill up a text box as far as the PHP code will read for its own purposes, then you fill in platform specific asm code to do whatever. When the PHP code accepts to input it will take ALL of the entered data and put it in memory and then it will be executed. The prevention for this is very simple, you check the data, make sure more than what you want is ignored and you have a set of characteristics for your input.

Of course, you should realize that most all viruses that are floating around are not that smart. They are distributed in an executable format because that's the form the people distributing it got it in. Most people who spread viruses and spam know nothing of the inner workings. They download rootkits and various other pre-made tools and use them through a GUI.

If they knew what they were doing, they could do tremendous amounts of damage to your computer. And some of the hacks and viruses out there are VERY sneaky and powerful. For instance, some attach themselves to the system kernel and then get written out and they're so close to hardware that anti-virus can't actually get access to see it. Intel, in conjunction with some independent contracts (from instructors at my university no less) is developing hardware that sits at that low level to specifically check for this. Apparently, there's lots of tools that allow you to cheat in MMO games by using that technique and lots of people are losing money because of it.
A couple terms ago I was seeking an adviser to do an independent study project under and one that I spoke to is working on this and he tried to get me to ditch my own project to work on this. He was basically trying to get me to do his research which really pissed me off.

I found someone else and am doing a pretty cool project right now. Hopefully it works. If it does, even to the degree I'm planning, it'll be an advancement in cooperative AI agents in games (think RTS). Right now they're so stupid it hurts. Current RTS Agents: "Get resource, build stuff, guard the big hole in the front of the base ... ignore the giant chasm in the back that can be cleared by any sort of plane ... oh I lost." Pathetic, they're almost as intelligent as a single worker bee ... almost.

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Blame it on Microsoft, God does.

Can you actually like download a virus, safely store it on your computer and give it to people you hate? I dont plan on doing this, but is there some low life on the interwebs getting a kick out of disturbing viruses safely, allowing people download then and unleash them on other peopels computers. I can see how its funny, but still, we could spend so much time on developing better programs and stuff, but theres always that 'security' factor that people have to focus on.

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Aaron's Stuff

Is there some low life on the interwebs getting a kick out of distributing viruses safely, allowing people download then and unleash them on other people's computers? I can see how it's funny, but still, we could spend so much more time developing better programs and stuff...

You haven't been on the internet long, have you?

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Also change the texture of the dock. Docks are rarely tile. -Facepunch
As I Lay Dying

No not really. I dont go on the web that much.

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Aaron's Stuff

A couple terms ago I was seeking an adviser to do an
independent study project under and one that I spoke to is working on
this and he tried to get me to ditch my own project to work on this. He
was basically trying to get me to do his research which really pissed
me off.

That's pretty much how the traditional grad student-professor
relationship works. If you're still an undergrad, then you were
definitely right to run away.

You don't even have to do anything, most viruses have a feature that will do the distribution for you! However, I already explained this in the post that inspired you to ask this question ... maybe you should read it again? It's all sort of a game of implications. If something is true then this other fact may be true, etcetera.

In a world where Microsoft has the dominant platform and developer base ... not much good software development and code is really getting churned out. Even hardware is getting slowed down because of the massive reach of home PCs. It would be nearly impossible (meaning very expensive) to make a newer, better designed, architecture and get the masses using it. The x86 should be dead by now, but too many people rely on it. :sad:

Not looking forward to grad-school, I have enough project ideas of my own that I really want to pursue. I'm pretty interested in AI and graphics.
Lately I've been thinking of some stuff about mixing graphtals and fractals with progressive AI, like genetic algorithms and such, the entire point would be to create plants and other nature objects that can grow in real-time and look realistic. I just need time and at least a GF8. Another little graphics project I've been mulling over is situation and particle/polygon specific shader effects. So, things like mapping a detail texture onto a surface for damage is still applicable (and efficient), but it would have a specific type of material and that would have a specific type of displacement map for it, so that bullet holes (in all objects) have depth. It has been done before, but never really well or in very much depth.

I'm sure that sounds incredibly boring.

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Blame it on Microsoft, God does.

Hmmmmm, sounds cool man :smile: .

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Aaron's Stuff

Yeah, wish I had ideas like that. I'm happy to just work on whatever I'm given so far, its all fairly interesting. Motion detectors and ray propagation, no time to explain them in depth as much as I'd like to.

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"If you talk at all during this lesson, you have detention. Do you understand?"

• My yr11 Economics teacher

On topic:

valve seems to suggest a slightly different method:

http://support.steampowered.com/cgi-bin/steampowered.cfg/php/enduser/std_adp.php?p_faqid=231&p_created=1094802822&p_sid=IjigofGi&p_lva=&p_sp=cF9zcmNoPTEmcF9zb3J0X2J5PSZwX2dyaWRzb3J0PSZwX3Jvd19jbnQ9Mzg4JnBfcHJvZHM9JnBfY2F0cz0mcF9wdj0mcF9jdj0mcF9zZWFyY2hfdHlwZT1hbnN3ZXJzLnNlYXJjaF9ubCZwX3BhZ2U9MSZwX3NlYXJjaF90ZXh0PW1vdmUgc3RlYW0*&p_li=&p_topview=1

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:: Forceflow.be :: Nuclear Dawn developer