Restoring lost downloads-can I save this neighborhood or is it borked?

[queenisis]

So, I had a fairly advanced version of Pleasantview that I have been playing for like, a year now. Custom clothes, houses, furniture, etc, default replacements, all that. Last night my hard drive just...died. I thought that I had a back up of my downloads folder on my external drive, like I did with the actual neighborhoods, but it turns out I don't and all my downloads are gone! Now, I had cleaned it out so there were not too many items that I don't use, and I know where to get most of them back. My question is this: if I had downloaded some lots, and I re-download those houses, will it be ok to start my neighborhood over again or is it borked? If I cannot find the exact custom hair I had on sim X, will sim X be corrupt or will she just use a different/Maxis hair? The only files I don't know where to find are the ones from Nouk's site. So, can this neighborhood be saved?


Thanks.

[Zazazu]

I just rebuilt my 3 GB downloads folder after I decided I was done with TS2, then decided I wasn't and had already decided it was long enough to get rid of all my backup, so I feel you.

Lots: Did you backup your Neighborhoods folder? If so, you can restore that and not have lost the lots that have been placed.

Hair: If you have a sim saved with CC hair and you load the game without that CC hair file, the sim will either be bald or have one of the EAxis hairs. No biggie. As for Nouk's hair, almost all of it has been loaded to MTS. Look around there. I have more of her stuff than I had before thanks to her propensity to upload her stuff on both sites.

Other CC: As a general rule, what will happen when you load a lot that contained CC you used to have is that the object will be replaced with whatever it was cloned off of. This can lead to pretty hilarious situations, like a guy I had ages ago from a 'hood I jerked over from my laptop, who just happened to have a huge statue on top of his head. Delete object. Replace if applicable.

[queenisis]

Thank you so much!  I actually just lost the last couple days of play, so I have a fairly recent backup of my neighborhoods. I was mostly worried about my houses being lost, I have been working on these families for ever. So the houses I have downloaded will still be there? Thanks so much, now I can go home and play! Also thanks for the heads up about Nouk on MTS2.


ETA: When I load up my Pleasantview it says Creating Pets/Magic/Whatever. Is this normal, when I replace the default folder with my own backup? I've never had to reload before so I don't remember if this is what is supposed to happen. Thanks.

[seelindarun]

ETA: When I load up my Pleasantview it says Creating Pets/Magic/Whatever. Is this normal, when I replace the default folder with my own backup? I've never had to reload before so I don't remember if this is what is supposed to happen. Thanks.

No, this is not normal.  It could mean that your backup was corrupted or incomplete.  Where did you put the backup, and did you make sure you didn't merge the folders?  If you still have a good, fresh copy of your played Pleasantview, you should empty the Neighborhoods folder (somewhere under Documents) and copy the backup there.  Delete groups.cache and launch the game.  If the game insists on creating pets/magic/etc. then your backup isn't healthy.

[queenisis]

I had put it on my external hard drive. But I don't see a groups.cache, only accessories.cache. I had to do a reinstall like a month ago and the neighborhood copied fine then, so I'm not sure what happened. Maybe it did get corrupted? Should I just delete accessories.cache?

[haifen]

ETA: When I load up my Pleasantview it says Creating Pets/Magic/Whatever. Is this normal, when I replace the default folder with my own backup? I've never had to reload before so I don't remember if this is what is supposed to happen. Thanks.

WHAT


Err, I mean, what do you mean "default folder"? Which folder are you replacing? If you're putting a back-up in (I'm assuming your Neighborhoods folder) it should be from this path: User>Documents>EA Games>The Sims 2>Neighborhoods.

It sounds like you replaced the Program Files path...?

[queenisis]

Yeah, I replaced the one from My Documents. I replaced all my hacks first, then tested. Everything seems to work now, thanks guys!