Backup That Game!
October 19, 2008 by Amy Tucker
Filed under Game Patch, Miscellaneous, The Sims 2
I told you yesterday about EA releasing a patch to fix broken crap issues in Apartment Life.
Today, I realized that I’ve never mentioned what to do before you install a patch or well…just about anything that alters the original game. [That includes all of the really cool downloads/content that I find for you.]
When you install a patch or other new content, your changing your original game. [I know that seems really obvious, but stick with me.] Now, imagine if you will, that you’ve been playing on Sims 2 since it was released back in 2004. All of this time, you’ve been playing the same family – generation after generation – and building your neighborhood.
You’ve installed all of the expansion and stuff packs with no problems and have never backed up your game [gasp]. “Who really needs to back up a game”, you think. “Nothing’s ever happened before”.
Then you download the Apartment Life patch and install it.
You reboot the computer and your game is dead. All of your sims are gone and you’re officially screwed.
Something happened while you were downloading the patch and the download was corrupted but you didn’t realize it. Since you didn’t back anything up – EVER – you’re now left to start all over.
That doesn’t sound like much fun, does it?
Didn’t think so.
Here’s what you need to know to backup what you have so that you don’t loose it all.
This is all assuming that you did a typical install of the game and that you didn’t mess with the location for install. If you screwed with the location then figure it out yourself cause I have no way of knowing where you put stuff.
The safest place to put a backup of the game is somewhere other than on the computer you have your game installed on. What’s the point in having a backup if the backup and game get killed by a power surge?
Figure out where you want your backup to go before you do anything. If you don’t have access to an external hard drive or DVD/CD then create a new file called “Backup” or whatever blows your skirtup.
Now that you’ve figured out where to put your sims, go find your game data.
It’s most likely gonna be found here:
C:\My Documents\EA Games\The Sims 2
Look around in there and find these four files:
Copy and save them all to their new home and you’re done.
Pretty easy, huh?
If you’ve taken pictures of your sims or made any movies then you’re gonna want to find those files as well. Movies are found in C:\My Documents\EA Games\The Sims 2\Movies and pictures are hiding in C:\My Documents\EA Games\The Sims 2\Storytelling.
Have fun with all of the great expansions and custom content…just don’t forget to backup your game often to prevent a Sims 2 apocalypse.
OK, I know I’m kinda late in the game, but I have TS2 and had to reinstall the game. I did backup my folders, but now I need to know how to reinsert my saved data. The last time I tried, I had duplicate game-base towns and I couldn’t open them – the game would crash!
What did I do wrong/should I do now?
Thanks, JB
When you copy the backed-up files into the new install, if your system asks you if you want to override existing files, I always say yes. That way my saved stuff is what shows up in-game.
If that doesn’t work then I would delete the files that you copied but delete them from the game. Does that make sense? Kill the files that the game has installed on your system that you backed-up from your old install and then move the backed-up files in.
Good luck. Now I’m going to have a drink after that convoluted explanation.
Thanks Amy!
So far so good! I have successfully merged the old with the new. And I also found the culprit that was keeping me out of the game. Any idea what ‘groups.cache’ is and does? It was in the new game files, so I copy/pasted the old file into the new (’cause it was bigger than the new, I thought it was important!) but I found it to be the reason I couldn’t get the game up and running the last time (the reason for the reinstall) and this time! Thankfully, I was smart enough this time to make a copy of the “virgin” new game files, so that I could replace it!!!
Thanks, again…
I have Vista and can’t find those file locations. Where do I find them in Vista?
I’m running Vista on my machine as well and those are the file locations when Sims 2 is installed at its default location. You might try searching you system for them.