Backup of SC4 files missing data

[buckbeach 8]

Not exactly sure what has happened but I had backed up all my SimCity game files to another drive and when I checked them out they only contain image files and txt info.  No data or other files necessary, to load them into a game. This stops me in my tracks to begin to play again because a large portion of the files I had saved, no longer exist.  I am very disappointed and don't know who to blame.

[Matrim Cauthon 344]

What exactly do you mean by "game files"

What location did you attempt to back up?

[buckbeach 8]

Not good at explaining things concisely. 

OK Example:  SM2 Small Town Water Tower download Zip opens to SM2 Folder that has 3 sub folders Documents; SM2 Small Town Water Tower and Props.  The Doc folder contains jpg and readme txt; Water Tower file contains Plop SC4Lot and Prop file contains  SC4Model file. This is the normal opened downloaded Zip.

My F external Saved from previous computer: Games/SimCity/SM2 Water Tower/SM2 Water Tower/jpgs and texts. NO SC4LOTS OR SC4MODELS FOLDERS OR FILES.

That is about as "exactly" this 78 yo foggy mind fart can get.  To me these are "Game Files"

An update is I did find an  old "Plugins " folder that contains some of what was lost (PegProd, citynut, Nexis, CSX,, Gizmo, Havoc, etc, etc, etc), BUT WildWest, most of Paeng's work, B62, chrisadams and who knows who else maybe lost to me forever.

I just maybe to damn old to start this process again.  Many better men than myself have retired from this old "masterpiece game"

Thank you very much for answering my post.

 

Buck

 

[Matrim Cauthon 344]

It's all good. But I think I have a bit of an idea what is going on and might be able to help.

To clarify, is the directory named:
 

"Games/SimCity/SM2 Water Tower/SM2 Water Tower/jpgs and texts"

or

"MY Games/SimCity/SM2 Water Tower/SM2 Water Tower/jpgs and texts"

If the directory is indeed just "Games" then that might have been your Game Installer directory which normally would not contain any mods.

If the directory is "My Games" that should be the right location, however the path should be "My Games/SimCity/plugins/". I read that you did find a plugins folder but it was missing some things.

That may be the best result you will get, but you may want to look around for another plugin folder.

I also assume you no longer have the computer it was originally installed on, or that computer was erased. If that's not the case, then you might be able to recover them from there.

[rsc204 21,836]

18 hours ago, buckbeach said:

OK Example:  SM2 Small Town Water Tower download Zip opens to SM2 Folder that has 3 sub folders Documents; SM2 Small Town Water Tower and Props.  The Doc folder contains jpg and readme txt; Water Tower file contains Plop SC4Lot and Prop file contains  SC4Model file. This is the normal opened downloaded Zip.

If you open a .zip file using the normal file's interface, i.e. double clicking the .zip in Windows Explorer, you can then Copy/Paste files from it, to another folder. You can also Cut & Paste those same files, if you've done that, you probably removed the game files from the .zips. So when you backed only those up, you lost the files. Could that be what's happened here?

Ideally, you just want to make a copy of the Plugins and Regions folders, which are inside of Documents\SimCity 4\, that would preserve everything the game needs. Most people keep their original downloads also, but I wouldn't consider it a substitute for the first.

4 hours ago, Matrim Cauthon said:

I also assume you no longer have the computer it was originally installed on, or that computer was erased. If that's not the case, then you might be able to recover them from there.

Sadly, if I'm right, this would be the only way of getting your data back.

[buckbeach 8]

First, thank you all for taking your time to respond.  Other computers, yes there are a couple of three hanging around. For other reasons I purchased an external device (for the lack of a better word) a while back so as to remove the hard drives of the other computers and insert them into the device/usb plug in connected bracket to read and upload selected files to my current setup (actually for my previous computer but didn't follow through).  So guys, great minds think alike (in my case not so great), but, this old 78 yo fool just runs out of gas and concentration for ANY mental and especially physical projects.

I need to think this through and decide what my next step will be.  Probably, just turn on the telly and watch more Netfix.

 

Thanks again

Buck

 

[jeffryfisher 2,176]

Before you delete anything else, call in a younger computer sleuth (friend or family, but get your Covid shot first) to walk through your computer(s) and external drives to find possible misplaced files. Make sure you do NOT empty your recycle bin.

Sadly, it is possible that you yanked files out of your zips long ago when you were installing them into your plugins folder. So unless you can find that plugins folder, the files may be truly gone from your system.

So where is the plugins folder that was working for you once upon a time? Do you have a backup burned to a DVD somewhere?

[buckbeach 8]

Thank you

Buck