Making a complete backup of modded Fallout 4?

[xforce11]

Hey

I wanted to know if it is possible to somehow make a complete backup of Fallout 4's game files, I installed a lot of mods and since I am going to buy a better computer I will need to install all the mods (and download Fallout 4 again with my bad internet connection.... it took me almost a whole day to download it) again which would be a hell lot of work. Is it possible to somehow make a backup of the game's folder? I had several issues already with Steam in terms of Steam not recognizing a game so I couldn't start it therefore I want to be sure to make it right (if it works).

 

The way I thought it could work would look like this:

- make the Fallout 4 game folder to a .rar file

- save it somewhere

- install Steam on the new PC

- unpack the archived Fallout 4 folder on the new PC

- somehow "connect" the game with Steam again

 

Would this be a way that could work out? Or will this encounter issues? As I already wrote, I had a lot of problems with Steam already, Steam wouldn't "recognize" the games and I couldn't start them anymore, even though all the game files were on my PC, the games somehow got "disconnected" from steam, there was no link anymore (For example: right clicking on the Steam icon in the taskbar would open the menu with recently started games, clicking on them would give me a pop up message that said something like "game could not be found" or "game needs to be downloaded first", even though it was installed on my PC, even in the Windows programs and features window).

So, would this workaround like (I posted it) work in some way? Or is there no way around installing all these mods again?

Edited January 25, 2017 by xforce11

[damanding]

I've had to do this twice now thanks to OS reinstalls.

 

Things to backup:

Mods you still have that you can no longer download from Nexus.

Your plugins.txt file

Your fallout/dlc archive .ba2 files

Your save game files

 

The simplest way to handle the vanilla game part itself is to backup all the big files, the ba2 archives in your data folder that are the fallout 4 and any dlc archives you have. They are the majority of the download anyway. Reinstall Steam and make sure you add those ba2 archives back into the file structure you previously had--so make sure you took note of the file structure from your c:/ root all the way to the Data folder where the archives go. Then have Steam validate your game cache. It will download all the other smaller bits you missed. This way you have an actually clean vanilla game without mods (assuming you didn't accidentally copy over mod archive files as well. Make sure you also run fallout4launcher.exe at least once. You don't have to actually start the game, clicking Play will have a pause, a screen blink, and dump you back to the smaller black menu with Play and Options. This will recreate your plugins.txt and other assorted files you need. You might want to also setup your options as needed at that time.

 

You'll note I suggested saving your old plugins.txt and also that I had you use the launcher to create a fresh one. The old one is there to use as a list of mods you need to install and their load order. I suggest now installing and using your mod manager of choice to reinstall all the same mods and sort them manually into the same order. If you used Loot before you can use it again and then just double check/adjust as needed. Once you've got all the same mods installed in the same order your save games should load normally. I've even done updates on some of the mods without having problems.

 

It's pretty much tedious and takes forever if you have a lot of mods but you don't have to start a fresh game, you can use your old save files this way.

[xforce11]

Thanks for the answer!

 

Well, at least I can save a lot of time reinstalling the game by saving these ba2 files but I will try to save all the folders and .esp files from the old data directory too and place them in the new installation after I got the game running, maybe that will work since I think it wouldn't really "change" anything in terms of installation because I always installed all my mods manually.

[damanding]

Thanks for the answer!

 

Well, at least I can save a lot of time reinstalling the game by saving these ba2 files but I will try to save all the folders and .esp files from the old data directory too and place them in the new installation after I got the game running, maybe that will work since I think it wouldn't really "change" anything in terms of installation because I always installed all my mods manually.

I really don't recommend that because it's too easy to accidentally leave mod fragments behind that can cause difficult to trace bugs later on.

[xforce11]

 

Thanks for the answer!

 

Well, at least I can save a lot of time reinstalling the game by saving these ba2 files but I will try to save all the folders and .esp files from the old data directory too and place them in the new installation after I got the game running, maybe that will work since I think it wouldn't really "change" anything in terms of installation because I always installed all my mods manually.

I really don't recommend that because it's too easy to accidentally leave mod fragments behind that can cause difficult to trace bugs later on.

 

Yeah I thought about that too but I can at least try it out, if it does not work I can simply delete the folders again. Since I am (only) used to installing / uninstalling mods manually (I actually never used the mod manager) I probably wont get many problems with that.

[Praefectvs]

@xforce11

There are other options as well, in my case, I have multiple drives, and partitions. When my main games partition became full I had to transfer other smaller games to another partition by just copying, then "re-installing" through steam, which was just steam basically recognizing where the game folder was now located. The drive I put my games on is a separate drive completely from my os, so that in the event of upgrading, or main drive, or os failure, my games are not affected.

In your case, you have the option to use your current drive in the new system, as a games drive (unless it's uber old and slow), also removing, and/or saving files that are not part of the games folder. As well as copying specific files damanding pointed out.

One shouldn't keep the games folder in the default c: drive anyways.