I'm trying to reinstall Skyrim, but for no reason at all it is refusing to install properly. It keeps installing to Steam\steamapps\downloading\72850. A few files download into the common\skyrim folder, but apart from that, most of it goes to the downloading\72850 folder. It has never done this before, and what is worse, it's no use verifying the integrity of the game cache because it completes in mere seconds where before it took a good few minutes. It doesn't know where or how to install all of a sudden, and it is extremely annoying. I'm targeting the same place I always have, and it refuses to do as it should.

Has the download completed? Have you tried to run the game through Steam before doing anything?

I've just exited and reloaded Steam, seems to have had an impact on the installation process. I think...

Yeah, it looks like it is installing properly now. It was basically splitting the installation between two locations. No idea why. It seems like this computer is just coming up with any old excuse now to cause trouble (it must sense I now have the opportunity to squish my BSOD woes).

EDIT: Nope, it happened again. Currently there is one item downloading, is that responsible? If not, my game installation from either the disk or download is utterly screwed. It won't even create a folder in Documents\My Games!

Let it complete the download. Then run the game through Steam.

It seems to be in the right place now. I've never actually viewed the folders while it was downloading/updating, so it was new to me. Given my recent hardware woes, I'm a little on the paranoid side. Thanks for the replies.