Back up plans? It's silly question but how do you actually back up your files in the event of losing everything. I've had the sims for ages but this is one of the small things i still get confused with. How do you back up and in the event of losing things how do you recover it? Thank you
Your saved games are all stored in your My Documents folder. Look in there and you'll see a folder called EA Games inside which are various folders created by EA ... (if you have other EA games they might well be saved here as well) Your saved neighborhoods are all in the folder called /The Sims 2/ and if you want a simple back up just make a copy of the whole folder, though be warned that a copy will take up valuable disc space unless you have a huge hard disc, or very little other content saved on your puter. Let's look at the contents in detail. /My Documents/ /.../EA Games/ /.../.../The Sims 2/ /.../.../.../subfolders GREEN=not essential AMBER=should be back up separately anyway RED=essential for a reinstall Cameras [only needs to kept if you have downloaded custom camera settings] Collections [only needs to be kept if you created, or downloaded custom collections] Config [only needs to be kept if have installed custom config files] Downloads [contains your installed custom content - should be backed up elsewhere anyway] HTTPCache [contains web access information] LockedBins [contains um ... ] Logs [contains text logs of errors etc. - disposable ] LotCatalog [contains all the lots you have saved in the neighborhoods lot bin - deletable] Movies [contains the movie clips you have recorded in game - deletable] Music [contains mp3 that you have put in here - deletable] Neighborhoods [contains ALL your played houses & sims] G001 (Blossom Hill (Seasons)) N001 (Pleasantview) N002 (Strangetown) N003 (Veronaville) N004 (etc. Custom hoods) PackagedLots [contains Sims2Pack files that you have packaged] Paintings [contains custom pictures for sims to paint] PetBreeds [contains saved pets] PetCoats [contains duh ] Projects [contains Body Shop/Homecrafter project files - you should have a separate back up folder of this stuff if you regularly create custom content yourself] SavedSims [contains all the sims you have created or downloaded] SC4Terrains [contains Sims City files] Storytelling [contains all your ingame pics ... back up separately] Teleport [um ...] Thumbnails [contains thumbnail packages but the game will recreate these if it has to ... it just takes time] Accessory.cache [can be deleted] cigen.package [can be deleted] ContentRegistry [can be deleted] Groups.cache [can be deleted] If you operate a regular back-up procedure you need only copy the neighborhood folder you played and use the copy to replace the file in the back ups. NOTE. If you delete, say, Strangetown (N002) and then create a custom neighborhood that new custom hood will use the vacant N002 folder ... so think before assuming anything. NEVER replace a back up file with a copy of a game that is beginning to show signs of failure. Better to make multiple back ups and label them in order. If things start going wrong in your game don't put those time bombs in your back ups. To use your back ups, just reinstall the game and then replace the new folders with ones from your back up. If you don't need to reinstall because you want to just go back a month to before things went wrong, just delete the whole My Docs\EA Games\The Sims 2\ folder, start up the game and wait for it to regenerate a brand new set of neighborhoods then exit and proceed as for a reinstall. Once you've learned to back up using the back ups is easy.
Alternatively, as Mirelly first stated, just make a copy of the entire Sims 2 folder and what I do is give the backup a dated name, e.g. 'Sims 2 backup 6th September 07' or pre EP name such as 'Sims 2 backup pre Bon Voyage'. I'm too lazy to fiddle around with folders so I just copy the entire Sims 2 folder. Of course, my hard disk hates me for that - I have many many backups lol.
Except that copying the whole folder can take a long time and just copying the active neighborhood folder is a lot quicker. After all why would you want to copy over the same storytelling and movie folders ad nauseum. It really is no more trouble to dig two or three levels deeper before copying because the copying is so much quicker with less to copy.
