[GUIDE] Manual Cleaning Skyrim Master Files

[vwmc]

 

To anyone who still needs to follow this guide :

I am currently updating it ( some old direct links to wiki paragraphs have been lost due to Bethesda re-organising their wiki's )

So to become less dependant upon other links and information, I am fleshing it out a bit with more images

It also needs an update to file CRCs ( at the end of the first post ) due to Zilavs recent changes to xEdit

So you now need to be a bit more up to date and use the Work In Progress version of xEdit available from Fallout 4 Nexus ( link for this in the first post has also been updated )

 

 

Thanks for the utmost clarity in the explanation and for providing hashes for verification. You did a wonderful job there!

Edited February 7, 2017 by vwmc

[vwmc]

After following this guide, I consistently end up with a Dawnguard.esm file with a crc of 50FB6A39. All of the others come out as expected, but I simply cannot duplicate your results with Dawnguard. This is with TES5Edit 3.2 and a legitimate, up-to-date, Steam copy of Skyrim Legendary edition. Does this have something to do with the note at the bottom, about how the guide used to have an extra step, or am I definitely doing something wrong?

 

 

Edit: OP has been updated with the right checksums since xEdit 3.2.

 

 

I'm getting different hashes as well but I *think* we may be OK. We can help each other build confidence on this. Below are my MD5 hashes for each cleaning step for comparison with the OP and yours. The green color means it matches with the OP and red means it does not match with the OP.

 

2476e42699d4d9236ddd2ea8b31f612d update.esm (original)

27cf2c3e379bc853f4ac574bcec7a0b9 update.esm (auto clean)

 

5bd2f339925a5fb96f9f0da7f96fd8ce dawnguard.esm (original)

0602d8450cc51f8c9ef8ab531b6edaeb dawnguard.esm (1st auto clean)

d3d38017bcda07c1abb1c343a9266634 dawnguard.esm (2nd auto clean)

74561a2cf8644acc8be857e0705996d5 dawnguard.esm (manual clean)

 

71c3d20ea9f8510e29c36f2a426247c2 hearthfires.esm (original)

1808e38f0d4e3f7e8ba10905235b7f6a hearthfires.esm (auto clean)

 

37d8cbffcb460011ce2bf3aabd007a2d dragonborn.esm (original)

7d78a3ca1e4d3700db5d7f5ddaf5f7d2 dragonborn.esm (auto clean)

Once we get a different hash at the 1st auto clean for Dawnguard, it makes perfect sense to get different hashes for all next cleans for Dawnguard as well. If you're unclear why, let me know and I'll explain how hashing works for file verification.

 

How does it help us? If you calculate the hashes for all of your Dawnguard master files between each cleaning step, we can compare against each other to see if we're getting the same hashes throughout the process. We just need to make sure we're using the exact same version of TES5Edit and here's why:

 

Since all hashes for my original master files are matching with the OP, it means Bethesda have not updated them from the time this post was created, which is a good start. So, I'm suspecting TES5Edit may have changed how it cleans Dawnguard and Hearthfires, from the version used by the OP in comparison to the version we're using today.

 

If you're not sure how to calculate MD5, you can use this utility from Microsoft: https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=11533 and below is an example of how to use it from the command prompt. Just make sure to keep track of the calculated MD5 for each Dawnguard.esm output file as you move onto the steps (1st auto clean, 2nd auto clean, and finally manual clean).

 

C:\YourPathTo\fciv.exe YourPathTo\Dawnguard.esm

[lued123]

Unfortunately I'm not playing Skyrim LE anymore. I've moved on in preparation of SKSE64's beta release in about a month, and I think it's highly unlikely that we can figure it out with me on SE and you on LE. At any rate, I was getting the same hearthfires.esm as the op was, and I was using tes5edit 3.2, so maybe double-check that. Dawnguard was the only one I was getting anything different on.

[vwmc]

Sounds good, I hope you have a better time with SE, I'll probably join that boat sometime soon as well.

 

Meanwhile I'll leave this here, if anyone else is interested in building confidence on cleaning master files, let me know because I'm still interested and we can help each other by just looking at these hashes.

[vwmc]

I just did this again and decided to verify through CRC instead of MD5. I was able to get HearthFires.esm to match CRC with the one from OP. However I'm still getting a different CRC for Dawnguard at the first auto clean.

 

If anyone has a clean Dawnguard per OP instructions, please post your CRC. You can check that in 7z if you compress only one file.

[Deleted133263User]

Ah, hmm its been a while ..

 

I think I need to download original skyrim again temporarily ( I have completely switched to SSE now )

 

TES5Edit has been updated a few times since I made the guide, but most of it apart from possibly resulting CRCs is still valid

 

The whole procedure ( including how many times to clean Dawnguard ) and manual cleaning steps ( exactly the same edits ) are also still valid for Skyrim Special Edition ( I did the same for the new game and Bethesda instead of solving some of the dirty edits since the original Skyrim have only added to a few of them for SSE, so you will find a few more ITMs / UDRs for one or two of the plugins )

 

Will get around to updating this using TES5Edit 3.2 one of these days ( currently testing UnOfficial patches for SSE and FO4 and helping support Wrye Bash testing in between shift work )

Edited February 13, 2017 by Guest

[vwmc]

Ah, hmm its been a while ..

 

I think I need to download original skyrim again temporarily ( I have completely switched to SSE now )

 

TES5Edit has been updated a few times since I made the guide, but most of it apart from possibly resulting CRCs is still valid

 

The whole procedure ( including how many times to clean Dawnguard ) and manual cleaning steps ( exactly the same edits ) are also still valid for Skyrim Special Edition ( I did the same for the new game and Bethesda instead of solving some of the dirty edits since the original Skyrim have only added to a few of them for SSE, so you will find a few more ITMs / UDRs for one or two of the plugins )

 

Will get around to updating this using TES5Edit 3.2 one of these days ( currently testing UnOfficial patches for SSE and FO4 and helping support Wrye Bash testing in between shift work )

 

Sounds good, take your time to catch up with oldrim and it's good to have you back active to help us out. :)

[vwmc]

Ah, hmm its been a while ..

 

I think I need to download original skyrim again temporarily ( I have completely switched to SSE now )

 

TES5Edit has been updated a few times since I made the guide, but most of it apart from possibly resulting CRCs is still valid

 

The whole procedure ( including how many times to clean Dawnguard ) and manual cleaning steps ( exactly the same edits ) are also still valid for Skyrim Special Edition ( I did the same for the new game and Bethesda instead of solving some of the dirty edits since the original Skyrim have only added to a few of them for SSE, so you will find a few more ITMs / UDRs for one or two of the plugins )

 

Will get around to updating this using TES5Edit 3.2 one of these days ( currently testing UnOfficial patches for SSE and FO4 and helping support Wrye Bash testing in between shift work )

 

Hey let us know when you have a chance to update the CRCs and MD5s with the latest tools. That was a great idea and it would be nice to keep it updated.

[Deleted133263User]

 

 

 

Hey let us know when you have a chance to update the CRCs and MD5s with the latest tools. That was a great idea and it would be nice to keep it updated.

 

 

Hey I'm on night shifts and this morning I just got around to re-installing Old Skyrim again to enable me to do it .. among everything else I want to do .. Patience is a virtue. Fingers crossed I can safely uninstall Old Skyrim for good after this time.

 

 

Its now done

 

And I can concur your first run on Hearthfires MD5 I think you may have done the procedure slightly wrong and produced a different checksum.

 

The only things different after cleaning with TES5Edit v3.2 was the auto cleaned and manual cleaned stages of Dawnguard.esm, those have new MD5 checksums and CRCs which concur with your results.

 

 

Edit : And if anyone is wondering - I can confirm the same routine needs to be applied to Skyrim Special Edition plugins, even the manual cleaning, you will get a few different checksum results and amount of ITMs / UDRs cleaned because Bethesda managed to add a few more, but the routine is the same.

Edited February 19, 2017 by Guest

[vwmc]

 

 

Hey let us know when you have a chance to update the CRCs and MD5s with the latest tools. That was a great idea and it would be nice to keep it updated.

 

 

Hey I'm on night shifts and this morning I just got around to re-installing Old Skyrim again to enable me to do it .. among everything else I want to do .. Patience is a virtue. Fingers crossed I can safely uninstall Old Skyrim for good after this time.

 

 

Its now done

 

And I can concur your first run on Hearthfires MD5 I think you may have done the procedure slightly wrong and produced a different checksum.

 

The only things different after cleaning with TES5Edit v3.2 was the auto cleaned and manual cleaned stages of Dawnguard.esm, those have new MD5 checksums and CRCs which concur with your results.

 

 

Edit : And if anyone is wondering - I can confirm the same routine needs to be applied to Skyrim Special Edition plugins, even the manual cleaning, you will get a few different checksum results and amount of ITMs / UDRs cleaned because Bethesda managed to add a few more, but the routine is the same.

 

That sounds great, I really appreciate you finding some time to revive this thread. It's been helpful to build confidence for new folks like me. BTW on a second run I was able to get Hearthfires CRC to match with your OP.

 

About Dawnguard, thanks for verifying I have the right checksums since latest xEdit 3.2. I saw you updated the OP with that info which is great. I think the forum bugged though and duplicated your checksum blocks a couple times.

 

I'm updating my comments to avoid confusion as well. Cheers!