4 replies to this topic

[Lord Hugo]

I had to do a hard restart of my PC (it froze up), and upon restarting the computer...My BGT Saves are gone. In fact, it is acting as if I've never played the game on the PC before. Er...What is going on? I really hope I do not have to redo 10 hours of gameplay, as then I would probably just toss the game back in my pile and wait another year before I pick it up. I don't like having to replay 10 hours of gameplay. Any help is greatly appreciated...I have Vista if that helps.

[Ascension64]

Not sounding good. I would troubleshoot this problem as if I would troubleshoot any problem with a computer freeze that results in data loss.

[tomkaz]

I had to do a hard restart of my PC (it froze up), and upon restarting the computer...My BGT Saves are gone. In fact, it is acting as if I've never played the game on the PC before. Er...What is going on? I really hope I do not have to redo 10 hours of gameplay, as then I would probably just toss the game back in my pile and wait another year before I pick it up. I don't like having to replay 10 hours of gameplay. Any help is greatly appreciated...I have Vista if that helps.

Hi Lord Hugo:

I may have a solution for you. I use this with Windows XP and I know it will work with modifications on Windows 9X. I completely dislike Vista so I will not purchase it and I have no experience with Vista. But every OS need DOS so I assume it can be modified. And, I do not buy commercial computers (Dell, Gateway, HP, Compaq, etc.). I assemble my computers from quality parts . This program works nicely on a computer you assemble yourself, but can be modified for a commercial one with loss of some benefits. Here is the entire program.

@ echo off
For %%A in (7 6 5 4 3 2 1) do if not exist H:\"SAVE%%A" md H:\"SAVE%%A"
RD H:\SAVE1 /S /Q
XCOPY H:\SAVE2\*.* H:\SAVE1\*.* > null /v /s /e /q /y
RD H:\SAVE2 /S /Q
XCOPY H:\SAVE3\*.* H:\SAVE2\*.* > null /V /S /E /Q /Y
RD H:\SAVE3 /S /Q
XCOPY H:\SAVE4\*.* H:\SAVE3\*.* > null /V /S /E /Q /Y
RD H:\SAVE4 /S /Q
XCOPY H:\SAVE5\*.* H:\SAVE4\*.* > null /V /S /E /Q /Y
RD H:\SAVE5 /S /Q
XCOPY H:\SAVE6\*.* H:\SAVE5\*.* > null /V /S /E /Q /Y
RD H:\SAVE6 /S /Q
XCOPY H:\SAVE7\*.* H:\SAVE6\*.* > null /V /S /E /Q /Y
RD H:\SAVE7 /S /Q
XCOPY E:\"Black Isle"\"BGII - SoA"\SAVE\*.* H:\SAVE7\*.* > null /V /S /E /Q /Y
Exit

If you are not familiar with DOS, get a copy of DOS for Dummies or some similar book. You may need to go to a used book store. Also you can get free DOS tutorials on the Internet.

The program.

► @ echo off

This line just stops the echoing of lines to the screen. It is optional.

► For %%A in (7 6 5 4 3 2 1) do if not exist H:\"SAVE%%A" md H:\"SAVE%%A"

This line creates the auto save directories. Seven is optional, you can create as many as you want. I use 7 because I boot once a day and this gives me a weeks worth of saves.

► RD H:\SAVE1 /S /Q
► XCOPY H:\SAVE2\*.* H:\SAVE1\*.* > null /v /s /e /q /y

These lines delete H:\SAVE1 and replace it with H:\SAVE2. On the 8th day, SAVE1 which is the save files from the 7th day is removed and replace with files from the 6th day. The /{codes} at the end of the line suppress DOS questions like "Are you sure you want to delete {file name}" so the program runs smoother. This is repeated in the next lines until the last six saves are move up one.

► RD H:\SAVE7 /S /Q
► XCOPY E:\"Black Isle"\"BGII - SoA"\SAVE\*.* H:\SAVE7\*.* > null /V /S /E /Q /Y

This last of the set copies the SAVE games from your Baldur game to SAVE7. If you want, you can reverse the number sequence.

Some additional notes.

E:\"Black Isle"\"BGII - SoA"\ is my game directory. H:\SAVE1 through H:\SAVE7 are my auto save directories. You can see by the partition letters, I have lots of hard drive space. So depending on your setup, your partition letters will need to be changed for this to work.

If you have a home assembled computer, this works very well. Just make sure your auto save directories and game directories are not on the same partition and your auto save directory is not on the C:\ partition. The benefits are that you will never lose your save games when you have a malware attack or a Windows/Vista crash or the game crashes. You can always do a fresh install of the game and copy the SAVE directories into it. Just make sure it is exactly like the one that crashed.

With a commercial computer, things are different. Many of the commercial computers I have seen have two partitions. A large C:\ partition for everything and a small D:\ partition for the Recovery System. With this type of setup, you lose protection from malware and Windows/Vista crashes, but you ca\n still do a fresh install of the game and continue where you left off.

A couple of other things I do to speed up things when I do a fresh install of the game. I purchased WinRAR. I am playing Mega Mods. After installing Baldur's Gate / Tales of the Sword Coast and installing BGII - SoA / ToB, I use WinRAR to make compressed backups of these. I did the same for the Mega Mod, but the compressed file now exceed the 8 GB file size limit of XP. Maybe it will create two file? I need to try that. I found that WinRAR will unpack and install a file much faster that XP can copy the same files from one directory to another.

I hope this makes sense.

Tom

Edited by tomkaz, 07 April 2009 - 05:27 PM.

[Jarno Mikkola]

But every OS need DOS so I assume it can be modified.

That's called the cmd.exe...

I think the same program can be made with a .txt->.bat file too...so one just makes a .txt file, gives it proper command lines and renames it as .bat file and runs it, but that's not my expertice.

[tomkaz]

My apologies for forgetting to tell you where to put the .bat file. To have it run automatically on boot, put the file here:

C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Start Menu\Programs\Startup\savegamecopy.bat

savegamecopy.bat is the name I gave to my file. You may call it anything you want as long as it has the .bat suffix. I use ALL Users because I am the only user. If you only want it to run when you use the computer, change All Users to your account name.

Tom