Won't preload, goes straight to the patch, help

[Silencor]

Ok, maybe you guys can point me in the right direction. I purchased HL2 off of steam months ago with my free ATI code for buying a card. I pre-loaded HL2. Then several months later, I reformated my hard drive to get everything cleaned up, and I forgot about the pre-load. Well I have to pre-load again today, but it won't pre-load.

It does this:

* "3.49gb must be installed or pre-loaded on your system" I hit yes/next
* "Installing hl2" ..... has the install bar, but then it blinks sraight to the "HL2 Update before you play"screen.
* It never pre-loads and goes straight to HL2 automatic update, after the update, it 's only 55% of the game. Yet it says I can "play", but I can't. It starts up then freezes.

I've tried deleting ANYTHING valve related including steam to start fresh and it still skips preload and goes straight to automatic update. Is this a glitch or am I going to have to wait until Valve recognizes this? Thanks for any help

 

[DCNemesis]

there are a dozen posts on this topic, stop making new ones or we'll have to dig through too many posts to find an answer

 

[Silencor]

there are a dozen posts on this topic, stop making new ones or we'll have to dig through too many posts to find an answer

I'm new to the forums.... mind telling me what the solution was?