Reinstalling my OS

[Maegfaer]

I am going to format my harddrive and reinstall my OS. I want to make an exact copy of Oblivion/mods/savegames so I can just continue with the game. I'd like to know if anyone has any experience with this, because I am a bit worried about it, especially about the registry settings.

 

This is my plan:

 

Copy Oblivion game folder and My Games folder (savegames etc.) to external harddisk

Format my harddisk and reinstall my OS including all drivers etc.

Clean install of Oblivion + official expansions

Clean install of OBMM

Copy the Oblivion folder and My Games folder from my external harddisk and overwrite the clean install

 

Will this work?

[Illiad86]

ya know, I was wondering the same thing myself. I've been wanting to reformat, I do it every 6 months or so, but it takes almost 2 hours just to install Oblivion and all my mods lol. I bought a copy of Windows 7 Ultimate when it came out and it's still sitting in it's shrink wrap because I don't want to reinstall Oblivion :P

 

I believe it's possible, but I haven't done something like that with a game.

[bben46]

You cannot copy the game itself. it must be installed to work. The main reason is the installation places some entries into the Windows Registry that must be there for the game to work. And no, copying the registry is not a good idea. That would lead to many other problems, including your computer may not boot up to allow you to fix it. :wallbash:

 

So, after reinstalling the OS, install Oblivion. Then install any utility programs (OMBB, 7-ZIP, OBSE, Wrye Bash etc.)Then copy over the mods, save games etc.

 

The one thing you will not be able to copy is the Oblivion.ini file where it saves all of the info on your hardware and OS. It is automatically created the first time you start Oblivion. Allow it to do it, then try copying it over. Don't worry about the default settings it picks as you will be changing them anyway.

 

I recommend Waiting to copy over your mods and saves. Install Oblivion, start the game and make a save. That initializes everything and creates an Oblivion.ini file. Then if you have it, install Shivering Isles, again start the game and make a save. As SI does make changes to the ini and game itself. Then, if you need to, or if you don't have SI, patch to the latest version.

 

Now, again before copying over your mods or save games - download and install the latest versions of any utility programs such as OBMM, OBSE, Wrye Bash, 7-zip and any others. Again, these are programs and must be installed for Windows to recognize them.

 

Once you have your vanilla game working - Test it to be sure - then you may try copying the old Oblivion.ini over. It may work if you have not changed anything. If not, just delete it and allow Oblivion to create a new one when it starts. then you can go in and make any changes you need to - see this site for help on tweaking http://www.tweakguides.com/ :thumbsup:

 

After you have tweaked your OS, your video card and then the game, test it to be sure everything works in vanilla. Then copy over your saves and mods.

 

Lots of work, but it should lead to a more stable, faster and better Oblivion experience.

[Rhiana]

Interesting topic.

 

Would making a copy of your data file and inserting that after the reinstall work?

 

So you do your new OS, reinstall Oblivion as usual, but then just copy over your data file to the one you had before the reinstall? Or is that what you are saying to do, after you reinstall the utilites and such?

[Maegfaer]

Yes that's what he's saying. But just the Data folder is not enough, take the entire Oblivion folder AND the My Games folder in your My Documents folder.

[bben46]

If you need a more in depth procedure, check my complete uninstall/reinstall procedure. It is actually intended for uninstalling completely, then reinstalling back on the same OS. However, most of it will be the same. Including saving your save games & mods before starting. The part about cleaning the registry is probably not necessary as it is intended to remove any corrupt registry entries from your old OS. But it will not hurt to do it anyway, and you will have the program available to do any registry cleaning in the future.

 

Here is a link to my complete uninstall/reinstall procedure located in the articles section of the Nexus

http://www.tesnexus.com/articles/article.php?id=240

[nosisab]

The restrictions applies only to what affects the Register. Since the OP said he will be reinstalling the game that part will be cared, the same may not be valid for some utilities that should be reinstalled to work on the secure side.

 

Other than it I can grant it works since it's the way I kept more than one 'patched' version and activate one at a time, like patches 1.1 and 1.2 for both Oblivion and CS. Obviously such changes need to be made at register level too, what is not the case from the OP.

 

If he manages to get the game working fine and patched to the same level the actual one, as pointed by bben46; bringing again the backup /data and /oblivion from (My) Documents will work fine. Remembering again the utilities themselves should be clean reinstalled. Last but not the least it is: hoping no mod places files outside the /data, I don't know about one that does so, but a possible thing it is.

 

Edit: Sorry I posted almost a copy of your last post, bben46, they came almost at the same time and yours gives more detailed procedures.