What is the best way to reinstall Skyrim? (To get "rid" of mod

[jcscrogs]

I just want to start over, which is what I will probably do (yet if I can avoid "losing" all my mods I would be grateful), but even with all mods unchecked I have many mods still active. I have had Skyrim since day 1 and many of the mods are old, plus with the new issue with NMM (at least for me) where when I check a mod to activate it, it may or may not activate in the plugins associated with it (and vice-versa for deactivating them); also the order is all screwed up I think...

 

Only 1 other question I can think of at the moment, is NMM and Wrye Bash able to be installed at the same time as each other?

Edited March 10, 2012 by jcscrogs

[MShoap13]

Here's my post on UAC which may be the cause of your activation/deactivation issue and, handily, it includes reinstall instructions:

If you're on Vista/7, Steam (and therefore Skyrim) is installed in the default (C:\Program Files) location, and you're having problems with replacers or simply mods (plugins) not working at all, even though you've activated them in NMM, or mods refusing to deactivate, even though all of their files have been removed, then you most likely have a UAC problem. It is possible to turn off UAC though it's not recommended for the vast majority of Windows users. To get around UAC without turning it completely off you'll need to move Steam to a location UAC does not affect (C:\Games\ is a commonly used location). This will most likely break any 3rd party utilities such as NMM as it will leave old registry keys behind that point to the location you originally installed Skyrim in. If you come across this issue, you'll have to uninstall Skyrim, clean the old registry keys, reboot, then reinstall Skyrim. I personally recommend using Revo Uninstaller as if you uninstall Skyrim through it, it will automatically scan for and ask if you'd like to delete old registry keys. If you're interested in keeping your old mods, config files, and/or saved games, tips found in Bben's Oblivion Reinstall Procedure work for Skyrim as well.

 

Before the reboot you may want to check your current installation directory and make sure there's no \Skyrim\ folder there at all. If it's there, delete it.

 

NMM and Wrye Bash can both be installed together and in-fact with FO3/NV/Oblivion it's quite common for people to just use Wrye's program(s) for it's bashed patch capability (primarily) and then to use a different manager for just about everything else.

 

Also, it's wise to keep the archives of mods you have installed around in a backup location. These can be useful if you ever need to reinstall a mod or do a manual removal (basically, using the archive as a checklist to make sure you get all of the mod's resources out of your installation directory).

Edited March 10, 2012 by MShoap13

[jcscrogs]

Wonderful response, thank you. I am going to move all my mod downloads to a "neutral" folder so I won't lose them when I delete NMM and Skyrim. I am wondering if it is possible to have Skyrim and Steam installed on that C:/Games directory folder together (in different folders)?

[jcscrogs]

Is the best path for everything C:\Games\? Everything being NMM, Skyrim, Wrye Bash, basically all games/programs associated with games - as to bypass Windows 7 security (and run everything as administrator)...

 

Is it ok to send the default directory of NMM mods (all mods) to an external HD as to get it off the C:\ drive?

Edited March 10, 2012 by jcscrogs

[nosisab]

Is the best path for everything C:\Games\? Everything being NMM, Skyrim, Wrye Bash, basically all games/programs associated with games - as to bypass Windows 7 security (and run everything as administrator)...

 

Is it ok to send the default directory of NMM mods (all mods) to an external HD as to get it off the C:\ drive?

The two most common errors installing games in Windows are doing it on C:\Program Files (or it's x86 version) or at the Desktop.

 

The first is related to Windows Vista and 7 only (to date), the second should not happen in any OS.

 

A tad uncommon but still a serious error is installing under the Documents folder (notice this last case applies only to executable running from inside it, it's OK having control/ini files there).

 

So, any user created folder, outside the mentioned folders is good enough. So is C:\xyz\... or any other partition/disk like D:, E:...

[jcscrogs]

Awesome, again thanks for the help, if it wasn't for forums no noob would have a chance... Although I like to think that I am a bit more intelligent than the average noob - I am more computer illiterate than anything.

 

Actually now that I am realizing I have a lot of programs (mostly 32 bit versions) in my documents folder including NMM (BOSS and messager setup, messager trace log, and trace log) and Skyrim and Oblivion Saves (and the TESVSGM, SBW.exe, etc.) and I don't know why (a few other random programs also but not many).

Edited March 10, 2012 by jcscrogs

[jcscrogs]

Checking my system out I have 12 different Microsoft Visual C++ programs on my computer spanning from 2005, 2008, and 2010 and I don't think I need but 1 of them, but which one?

 

There is the Compilers 2010 Standard, 2005 Redistributable (3 different ones, 2-x64, and one unnamed), 2008 Redistributable (3-x64, and 3-x86), and 2 different 2010 Redistributable (1-x64, and 1-x86).

 

I am fairly certain that all x64 is 32-bit and all x86 is 64-bit, is this correct? Out of all of these (C++ programs) how many/which ones do I need?

 

I have a similar issue with all the Python programs... Spanning from 2.7, 25, 26, 27, and 32 (Python25-Python32) on my C:\ drive (NOT in the Program Files folders).

Edited March 10, 2012 by jcscrogs

[MShoap13]

x86 is 32 bit, x64 is expanded instruction set (all the way up to 256 bit FP). The most up to date version of x64 should be all you need as far as Visual C++ is concerned. I recommend Revo Uninstaller again here as it will get the registry keys that Windows normally leaves behind. It's probably best to uninstall all versions of Visual C++, reboot, and then do a fresh install of the newest one.

 

Python on the other hand is known to be finicky and things that state they require an older version generally won't work with a newer version. The same thing applies to .NET Framework (though you didn't mention I figured it was worth mentioning as it's often the issue behind a lot of problems with modding utilities etc.).

[jcscrogs]

I have literally been uninstalling/reinstalling all day (cleaning out my computer of old files) and I have to say I really like Revo Uninstaller, it is awesome.

 

As for the C++ suggestion, I think for now I am going to wait as I am tired of messing with all of it, but will remember this for future things to do. I now have a completely clean install of Skyrim, NMM, and Wrye Bash.

 

Funny thing, even after completely uninstalling/reinstalling NMM, all my mods are still there in the mod list (not many .esp/.esm though), which makes me wonder, are these mods still the full version or do I need to delete and reinstall them? I do have all my previous mods installed on my HD, but again instead of reinstalling those should I just redownload everything?

 

UPDATE:

 

After using these guides to set up Wrye Bash and NMM, the mods listed above are gone (after redirecting the paths) which is fine with me, I wanted to redownload them to get the latest versions and to convert them to Wrye Bash.

 

http://www.overclock.net/t/1206230/guide-to-setting-up-wrye-bash-and-nmm-for-skyrim

 

http://forums.bethsoft.com/topic/1338606-wrye-bash-simple-mod-installation-for-smarties/

Edited March 11, 2012 by jcscrogs

[jcscrogs]

So instead of reinstalling everything from scratch, I figured I would try to copy/paste all the mods on my HD to the correct folders so that NMM and Wrye Bash would automatically import them (I do understand that programs like Skyrim Script Extender will need to be completely reinstalled). Everything appears to work for NMM, but when I click the installer tab in Wrye Bash it scans all the mods in the folder but gives me a window of:

 

wxPython:stdout/stderr

 

Traceback (most recent call last):

File "C:\games\steam\steamapps\common\skyrim\Mopy\bash\basher.py", line 5028, in OnShowPage

self.GetPage(event.GetSelection()).OnShow()

File "C:\games\steam\steamapps\common\skyrim\Mopy\bash\basher.py", line 3687, in OnShow

if data.refresh(progress,what,self.fullRefresh):

File "C:\games\steam\steamapps\common\skyrim\Mopy\bash\bosh.py", line 8523, in refresh

if 'I' in what: changed |= self.refreshInstallers(progress,fullRefresh)

File "C:\games\steam\steamapps\common\skyrim\Mopy\bash\bosh.py", line 8740, in refreshInstallers

changed |= self.applyEmbeddedBCFs(progress=progress)

File "C:\games\steam\steamapps\common\skyrim\Mopy\bash\bosh.py", line 8771, in applyEmbeddedBCFs

converter.apply(destArchive,self.crc_installer,bolt.SubProgress(progress,0.0,0.99),installer.crc)

File "C:\games\steam\steamapps\common\skyrim\Mopy\bash\bosh.py", line 7726, in apply

self.arrangeFiles(SubProgress(progress,lastStep,0.7))

File "C:\games\steam\steamapps\common\skyrim\Mopy\bash\bosh.py", line 7756, in arrangeFiles

raise StateError(u"%s: Missing source file:\n%s" % (self.fullPath.stail, srcFile.s))

bash.bolt.StateError: temp-SkyUI 2.1 BAIN-BCF.7z: Missing source file:

InstallerTemp\28E4D397\SkyUI Extras\Original Fontconfigs\Default\fontconfig.txt

 

The window doesn't do anything after it gets to this point and is the last step (I think) for them to be imported into Wrye Bash. What am I missing?