Clean install of Oblivion

[Eolath]

Like mentioned in the description, what is the best way of achieving a clean install of Oblivion?

 

I have about ~75 mods running currently in the game, and loads of meshes and textures added and replaced all over oblivion.

Somehow I get all kind of weird graphic errors, like the sky turning blue the one moment, and the other moment its pouring down rain - or the water bugging out in the distance, sometimes even weird Meshes of chairs get stuck high in the air, and I can see them floating - enough ranting though.

 

Back to the question at hand, what would be the best way of starting a clean oblivion game, should I just delete the whole Oblivion folder, or use its uninstaller - will I not suffer any of these errors when I start a new game afterwards, or will some mods keep haunting me untill I completely clean windows out?

 

And what's the best way, starting a total new save - or can I try and continue with my older save even without the mod. (200d played'

 

Sorry for the wall of questions!

Thanks for your time,

 

Eolath

[bben46]

Here is a link to my recommended uninstall/reinstall of Oblivion. It leaves you with a clean install, a backup clean install, and allows you to preserve all of your mods and saves.

 

http://s1.zetaboards.com/TheStormRavenLibr.../1446421/1/#new

[Eolath]

Thanks a load, however - I think the problem lies with one of it's mod, so I think it's best to just delete them all and reinstall them.

Am I right?

 

Edit: nevermind, after reading through it - I think the best thing to do would be to skip the copy saves/mods part and just erase it all.

Once again, ta - if I hadn't given you a kudo already you'd get a second one :biggrin:

[BossDweebe]

  Eolath said:

Thanks a load, however - I think the problem lies with one of it's mod, so I think it's best to just delete them all and reinstall them.

Am I right?

 

Edit: nevermind, after reading through it - I think the best thing to do would be to skip the copy saves/mods part and just erase it all.

Once again, ta - if I hadn't given you a kudo already you'd get a second one :biggrin:

 

 

If you want a total clean you may still want to do the other things bben suggests.

Clean the reg entries and delete the folders in My Documents\My Games, and the Documents and Settings\(User name)\Local Settings\Application Data\Oblivion. Then there will be nothing left to haunt you.

If you do this you will need to start a fresh game - I think. What the hay, why not ?

 

My understanding is that best practice, in relation to keeping windows happy, is to uninstall and then delete what's left. Uninstalling may get rid of much of the above but check anyway.

Read bben's notes again.

 

btw- bben, if you are still there. You mention uninstalling from the disc. Is this different from uninstalling

via windows Add Remove Progrms ?

[bben46]

@BossDweebe

I don't know. As I have never tried uninstalling using the windows add remove programs to remove Oblivion. If some one will either post or PM me who has tried it and let me know if it works, I may add that to the procedure.

[BossDweebe]

Thanks bben -

 

Gee - I've never uninstalled anything with the icon provided by games, or other software,

or from the disc for that matter. I've always been afraid windows won't recognise it and

leave it on the list.

Actually - I have uninstalled Oblivion with windows, but I was going for a fresh start when I

got SI, and a system upgrade, so I did the long hard road to my mod re-installation.

I had only about 50 mods then, but I did delete the remnants. I didn't know about the

Doc Settings\Local then though.

 

I did this twice. I had a series of nVidia drivers that refused to co-operate with my card -

180.-- series- (and not just one copy, so I know they weren't corrupt). I blamed my constant crash

nightmare on my installation and re did it all. After that I went for newer drivers (181.--), and all was well.

[Qwaxalot]

  bben46 said:

@BossDweebe

I don't know. As I have never tried uninstalling using the windows add remove programs to remove Oblivion. If some one will either post or PM me who has tried it and let me know if it works, I may add that to the procedure.

 

Uninstalling from the Windows add/remove programs will work just fine as long as the original Oblivion Installation wasn't interrupted when installing. During the last increment of the original Oblivion Installation process, the installer seems to hang (sometimes takes minutes to finish). Unfortunately, you can interrupt the process and, although Oblivion will run, the registry entry for the uninstaller gets farkled, hence so many advices to uninstall from the original disk, and the confusion about the registry.

 

Basically. If the original Oblivion installation completed successfully, a windows uninstall works fine (except for the mygames\oblivion folder not getting deleted).

 

Rather than try to educate a user about regedit, I prefer to advise users to use Bben's approach with Ccleaner, even though I, personally, will not use a registry cleaner on my own machines.