How To Fix Steam Error “The file or directory is corrupted and unreadable.” (0x570)

This blog post is about how to fix the Steam error “The file or directory is corrupted and unreadable.” (0x570)

Introduction
I had just downloaded Company of Heroes 2 via Steam, which is a massive amount of data. When I went to play the game via Steam the above error message displayed. My first reaction was that I had a corrupt hard drive or that I had to download the whole game again.

Instead I downloaded a 12.2MB file and then was able to play the game! I’m glad I didn’t uninstall and try to download the whole game again.

Warning: Before trying out the simple instructions below, I strongly suggest you backup any important data on the hard drive where you install Steam games just in case there is a problem with the hard drive.

Solution

1. Open the Steam application and from your game library, right click on the problematic game and select ‘Properties’.
2. Under the ‘Local Files’ tab select ‘Verify Integrity of Game Files…’.
3. Once the file validating as occurred, selected ‘Close’.

In my circumstances the solution above solved the problem and Steam automatically downloaded the file that had previously failed, as you can see in the screenshot below.

I also suggest you perform a check of your hard drive for errors. Like many options, my steam library isn’t on my primary hard drive, so you should make sure you know the hard drive letter that holds your steam library before checking.

Running chkdsk on Windows 10

1. Click on the Windows icon to open the menu and scroll down to the ‘Windows System’ folder.
2. Right click on ‘Command Prompt’, select ‘More’ and then choose ‘Run as administrator’.
3. Type chkdsk/? and then press enter to display available options.
4. Type in chkdsk followed by the options you require. i.e. chkdsk D: /F /X

As in the screenshot below, I found no bad sectors when checking my hard drive.

Conclusion
I’ve since played the game without any further issues and I hope this blog post helps others.