Help! Everything in my neighbourhood has gone!

[Angelica]

Ok, so after reinstalling Sims (with all the EPs up to Bon Voyage) I copied across EVERYTHING from my backup to [Documents\ EA Games\ The Sims 2]. I ran the game and everything seemed to be in order, all my downloads and neighbourhoods were there etc... Until I went into my main, most important neighbourhood (N009) where everything had gone! My story, my Sims and all the houses I had made!
I closed the game and copied across the entire neighbourhoods folder from my backup to [Program Files\ EA Games\ The Sims 2\ TSData\ Res\ Userdata\ Storytelling]. No luck. Upon opening the game, however, I realised that everything else was exactly how it should be. All the other neighbourhoods had all the characters, houses and stories they should. Even the Downtown in N009 had its characters, houses and stories. I went back again and copied across the neighbourhoods folder to [Program Files\ EA Games\ The Sims 2 Bon Voyage\ TSData\ Res\ Userdata] but stil no luck.
I just can't understand what the problem is. When I go in the [Neighborhoods\N009\Storytelling] folder that I keep copying across I can see all my pictures in there as well as the .xml files with the stories in. I want the stories to show up at least, if nothing else, although the stories were in individual houses which have not shown up. In the neighbourhood in the game there is one premade house which should not be there with the same name as one of the ones I made but with no characters in and no story. I don't know if it's my imagination but the actual neighbourhood looks different aswell - it seems much smaller and has a different layout to the original one. Don't know if that information is of any help...

Anyway, I will be so grateful if anyone can help me solve this problem! I have no idea what to do! 

[Tarlia]

First of all, don't use the center tag for no reason, it looks silly.

Second, don't try copying things into the Program Files folders. It will do nothing to alter or fix your existing neighbourhoods. These folders contain files which are copied over when you start a fresh game - as in, if one or more or all of the Documents folders are missing, the appropriate ones will be replaced from the various folders in Program Files. It's best not to mess around in there if you don't know what you're doing. Remove whatever you copied into them.

I'm a bit surprised you can't tell for sure if the neighbourhood terrain/map is different or not, it seems like something you'd notice. Even if the terrain was somehow replaced, the houses should still be there, just in the wrong spots. I assume you don't know how many character or lot files you had before backing up and reinstalling, but with SimPE you can easily open the neighbourhood and check if all the characters and and lots are, in fact, still there. You may also want to try removing the TS2 Documents folder, letting the game regenerate the folder, and then copy your backup of the N009 neighbourhood - and ONLY that, no downloads or anything else - into your Neighborhoods folder.

If the stories are your main concern, you technically still have them, as long as you have the xml files and pictures.

I have no magic cure, though, and I don't know what exactly the problem could be. You'll just have to try different things and do some investigation.