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Safely Uninstall/Reinstall Sykrim


Layia28

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Hi everyone, I'm not sure if this is the correction section to put this question in, but I hope it is.

 

I have my Skyrim game running almost flawlessly, but there are still a couple issues here and there. In my tests and research and everything I've been doing to try and get my game running as close to flawlessly as possible, I've noticed that some of the mods I installed over a year ago via NMM and uninstalled via NMM are still there - they haven't been completely deleted and I believe that is, at least contributing to the problem. Now, I don't know how to go through and manually delete these old mod files and since it's been over a year (I just recently started playing Skyrim again) I can't even remember what they are all.

 

What I would like to do is uninstall Skyrim and reinstall it to have a fresh start with only the mods that I'm using now and know work without conflict. However, I'm not sure how to safely do that. I've heard that you have to uninstall it via Steam and uninstall BOSS and NMM and then reinstall them all again, but I've also heard that you can just delete everything in the skyrim folder except the TESV.exe, then go into Steam and validate the files. If that's true that would obviously be easier and take less time, but I don't want to screw anything up which is why I'm asking for advice on here.

 

If anyone can tell me the best, safest, most effective way to uninstall and reinstall Skyrim and if simply deleting everything in the Skyrim folder except TESV.exe and validating the files would work I would really appreciate it. I want to thank anyone who takes the time to offer some advice in advance.

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This is what I would do:

 

1. Verify the game files and replace any that fail the check.

2. Use Steam to make a back up of Skyrim. AFAIK, Steam will only include original files in the back up.

3. Uninstall Skyrim using Steam and then navigate to the /common/Skyrim folder and check all Skyrim files and folders are gone.

4. Make a copy of the NMM install info folder and your mod directory.

5. Uninstall BOSS, Wyre Bash, NMM and any other Skyrim related application installed.

6. Delete the whole /common/Skyrim directory.

 

7. Reinstall Skyrim from your Steam Back up.

8. Navigate to the Skyrim install folder to see if there are any folders/files that don't seem vanilla. Verify game files.

9. If you find any stray files, any weird folders or anything that doesn't seem vanilla - delete local files and the back up you made and redownload Skyrim from Steam. Your back up was compromised.

 

10. If it checks out, then install NMM (replacing the install info folder with the one you backed up), BOSS, etc.

11. Use NMM to reinstall your mods.

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Thank you so much. I tried your advice the other night and it seemed to work perfectly. I really appreciate you taking the time to help me. I just have one quick question. I did everything you said, and there weren't any files in the Skyrim folder that weren't vanilla so I verified the files. And after I verified the game files there still weren't any files in the Skyrim folder that weren't vanilla. However, when I started a new game, the graphics still looked good, not outstanding, but good as though there were some texture mods installed. Is it possible for a vanilla game of Skyrim on a pretty god rig with almost everything set to ultra to look good without any modifications?

 

I know that might be a stupid question, and if it is I'm sorry, but it's been so long since I played a vanilla version of Skyrim that I can't remember if it looked that great right off the bat.

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  • 2 months later...

ugh, how do i verity the files? and i dont know where to find the other files needed, my game is completely broke... i am a loss, cant play no more, i asked bathesda and steam for help but get nothing..im try'n for a clean install and start over again. i have all expansions, i hvae many missing files for when i go into inventory its totally balnk and wont allow me to finad anything...or it crashes. plzzzzzzzzzzzzz i need help

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Right click on Skyrim in your steam library. It pulls up a menu. Go to properties, then choose verify files option.You do have to be using steam in online mode for that to work.

However, your problem sounds not like a missing files problem but a problem with your mods. You might try posting your BOSS list on a separate post, since it is not really related to this one.

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  • 3 months later...

Its always handy to keep a clean and fresh backup of your skyrim folder. I keep a flawless version with preffered gameplay and texture mods and SKSE installed on my external hard disk so that when I try and push my machine to the limit with a lot of new mods and it does happen to go wrong I can just completely remove Skyrim by just deleting the system folder and replacing it with the backup.

 

Only thing that you do have to do after that is reinstall NMM. Depending on whether you want to save your downloads from the past or not you can go into that folder first to copy those and place them back after the reinstall.

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  • 2 months later...
  • 3 weeks later...

Just did this and now the game crashes on start up. I notice BOSS can't find it. Tried to start through steam and SKSE same result. I loaded back the stuff I saved from NMM. It says the mods are activated but the plugin list does not show them. If I disable a mod and reinstall it, it then shows in the plugin list. It appears I am missing a file or something to tell NMM and the game that the mods are loaded.

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  • 3 months later...
So I don't what happened but I completely messed up my game. I installed skyrim from the disc and then cleaned my dlc and then after that it wouldn't find the skyrim.esm file and wouldn't launch or do anything past bringing up the main menu. I didn't touch skyrim.esm when cleaning I followed gophers instructions to the T. Now when I uninstall and reinstall it says there's only 28 files on the disc? Is it possible to delete files from the actual disc? Or idk I'm lost. I have no idea what went wrong. Definetly won't be that again though.
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