There have been instances of folks who have the disk and Steam will instead try to download the game rather than use the disk. What we think causes this is having Steam running when doing the install. To mitigate this, exit out of the Steam Client so it is no longer running. As always, I think installing a game under a clean boot is the best way to proceed, so here are the instructions.

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/310353 The same thing applies to Vista/7.

Then, using the Disk, install the game. After install you can go back to a normal boot, but you will have best game performance under a clean boot, or as close to it as you can get.

Now, if for some reason Steam grabbed ahold of the install and you do not want to download it, the reason you can't get around it is the local content from the aborted downloads, so you need to clear that out.

Thanks to Cerebelum for providing this.

• Log in to Steam and click on Library.
  
• Right-click on the game, select Delete local content, and confirm.[/b]
  
• Insert the first disc into your computer.
  
• Close Steam (Steam > Exit).
  
• Press Windows Key + R to open Run
  
• In the Run window type:

"C:\Program Files\Steam\Steam.exe" -install E:

Replace E: with the CD/DVD drive you are installing from if is not correct.
Replace C:\Program Files\Steam if your Steam installation is not in the default location.

Press OK. Steam will launch and ask you to sign in if you do not have your password saved. Your installation should continue from the disc.


Of course this may change if it is something Steam can patch.

Lets keep all these and other install from disk questions to this thread please.

Here is what my research into the issue has revealed:

Actually, I was one of those people. I have now completed 10 plus installs. I have a ghost image I keep restoring of a fresh Windows XP SP3 install with nothing but drivers and Direct X 9 installed.

At this point, I believe that the game always does install from the CD, but there is a strange bug in the installer that makes it crawl like the CD is running at 1x speed. To prove to yourself that it is actually installing from the CD, disable your NIC during the install process. You'll see that the numbers continue to climb.

On my original install, I would have sworn it was installing from Steam because of how slow it went and I couldn't hear my CD drive spinning or lights flashing. On one subsequent install since, it did the same thing, but I disabled my NIC and it continued. When I opened the CD drive, the install stopped until I closed it again.

On all of my other installs, I can hear the CD drive working and it is installing from the CD. I'm am following the same procedure every time. There just appears to be some kind of occasional bug in the installer that sometimes makes the install crawl when installing from the CD.

Could you jump into your Device Manager and check in the properties of the Optical Drive and make sure it is not set to PIO mode? Just to cover all the bases.

The DVD object's properties don't mention PIO or DMA anywhere. However, all of the IDE channels are set to:

Device Type: Auto Detection
Transfer Mode: DMA if available
Current Transfer Mode: Not Applicable

The DVD is hooked up to one of the IDE channels.