integrity of game hash fails after every restart

I recently had my data hard drive fail, after which I installed a new hard drive and installed path of exile on it. So far so good.

I played for a weekend, then restarted to Linux for work, then restarted to Windows to play again.

File errors all over. Well, okay, sh*t happens, verified integrity of game cache, it failed, it re-downloaded the game, problem solved.

Except not. Every time I restart the computer now, it fails to load some series of files and needs to re-download the game cache. This is 3.6 gigs. After doing so, it's fine.

If I delete local game content entirely and purge the folders, etc, and reinstall, the problem returns, and I have to "verify the integrity" again, which fails, and wait for a 3.6 gig download before I can play again.

I have a sneaking suspicion it's steam's fault, and a sneaking suspicion you're going to recommend that I purge and reinstall steam.

Windows 7 Ultimate (64 bit)
Steam
Intel Core i7-3820
8 gigs ram

https://support.steampowered.com/kb_article.php?ref=2037-QEUH-3335

Follow the Run Steam as Admin steps, and see if that changes anything.

Did you transfer over your SteamApps folder from the old drive? Did you just re-download your games?

I'd say needing to reinstall Steam would be a much better problem than having a broken new hard drive.

Attempting the as-admin integrity check.

The SteamApps folder was destroyed with the death of the old drive, so I established a new folder on the new drive and installed the game there.

And yes, I agree that purging and reinstalling steam is a lesser of several possible evils here.

Sometimes this problem crops up because of security software (virus scanners mainly) stopping the updated changes from taking effect. That doesn't usually occur on the 3.6 gig file (Content.ggpk) though.

I've now uninstalled and reinstalled Steam, purging all files related to the game and rebuilding it from scratch.

I don't run active protect antivirus (I periodically scan to confirm I'm still clean, and I have done that recently), so that's unlikely to be the cause.

Every time I restart, the game goes back to having file issues.

I'm now trying to free up space on the SSD to see if I can confirm whether it's an issue with the hard drive itself, but nothing else stored on that drive has been having issues.