Freshly Installed Steam but can't update

[Ghost Assassin]

I uninstalled and reinstalled steam cuz of this error that showed that steam was already running, but it wasn't at all. I installed and when it goes to update...it stops at 26% then says steam already running. I already tried googling and seen several ways to fix...like putting command and deleting stuff. It hasn't worked yet. I've heard suggestions like reformating the computer...I don't want to go there. So if anyone can help...I grealty appreciate it.

[saucengine]

check to make sure that steam isnt being blocked by any security programs you have running (PeerGuardian, Im looking at you!)

If steam wont start up because it thinks its already running, try cancel the process via the Task Manager (ctrl+alt+del->processes->steam.exe)

Steam does tend to freeze at particular parts of updating, from personal experience. Have you tried leaving it for 10 minutes or so? Steam may just be downloading a big file and wont refresh the progress bar until the files downloaded.

Thats all I can say really, hope it helps.

good night,
saucengine