More Awesome Than You!

I uninstalled and reinstalled AL because my game would get to the neighborhood screen and then I'd get the message "the blah blah has crashed the application will now terminate".  now all of my CC and most of the files in the Sims 2 folder are all gone! I am going to uninstall all of my expansion packs (I have all) and reinstall. In which order should I install them?

That happened to me also. I thought I had accidentally erased all my CC. Luckily, I had a backup.

I have all EPs (not AL yet) and they were loaded in no particular order.  If you're set on reinstalling from scratch, you may as well install in order, but it shouldn't matter.  I would take out the Downloads folder until the install is complete and then add in the AL director's cut and your other CC after you test and see that it is good.

Actually, uninstalling AL deleted everything in my Sims 2 folder, not just my downloads. It left two files that had foreign characters in them, though. So, a warning to anyone uninstalling AL -- backup your Sims2 directory.

But anyone with any sense backs up their sims2 saves directory on EP installation and removal anyway. In fact it's a good idea to have a backup anyway for when a bug causes your game to go BFBVFS.

Last time I uninstalled, which admittedly was years ago, the uninstall program asked me if I wanted to keep my saved games or not. Apparently answering "No" results in the removal of the entire The Sims 2 directory.

In any case backing up the directory is good practice when installing a new expansion pack or stuff pack. As a former network administrator, let me assure you that backups are ALWAYS good no matter how "unimportant" your data is.

Uninstalling an EP has always deleted the downloads folder and saved games from my experience. Base game is the only one that asks if you want to keep your save games, as far as I know.

It's true, uninstalling an ep will always take the files with it, this is normal, that is part of the reason why so much stress is on making a backup before an install. The last time I lost all my files it was during a botched install, the game got to the "checking to see if your game needs updating" message then errored so it uninstalled itself and took my files with it.

except Pets. You can un-install Pets and not lose anything, not even your hoods.  ;D

*snort* Figures that there would be an inconsistency somewhere. I wouldn't have discovered that, it's rare that I've had an issue that I needed a reinstall to fix, I just manually replace the core files if one corrupts. The only time I've uninstalled was that example I gave above and that wasn't even my doing.

For the record, I uninstalled AL today because it is way too buggy for my taste still. I replaced the cracked exe with the original prior. Very clean uninstall. I was rather surprised. Didn't leave and AL folder in Program Files/EA Games, did not leave registry entries, nothing. I added my FT hood back, and it has been running smoothly, as if nothing ever happened.

I didn't know that about Pets. You would think I would since I have done so many uninstall/reinstalls. Hm :P