Uninstall Problems

[Crystallyne]

I hope no one minds me posting this here, but I could use some help.  I recently added a new hard drive to my computer, and I want to move my Sims 2 games over to my new drive.  I've backed up my neighborhoods and downloads and such.  All that's left now is to uninstall the old version of the game.

However, when I click the Uninstall icon for ANY of my Sims 2 expansions, it does NOTHING.  I have gone through the Add/Remove Programs in the Control Panel.  I have used the Uninstall program in my Start menu.  I have gone directly to the folder where they are uninstalled and tried both the "eauninstall.exe" and "Sims2EP#_Uninst.exe" options.  (Replaced # with the number of the expansion.)  No matter what avenue I try, my computer just thinks for a moment and then I get nothing.  I have tried to leave it sitting for awhile in case it's just being slow, but nothing happens even after half an hour.

Has anyone else encountered this?  I have rebooted my computer and done everything else I can think of.  The only option left to me at this point seems to be to completely uninstall it manually which would include editing my registry keys.  I REALLY don't want to have to go that route.  Or else completely reformat my computer, which is something I had planned to do in the next few weeks, but I am not ready to do so yet.

Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

[Crystallyne]

Go figure!  I got to thinking about it and remembered that when my game doesn't respond when I'm trying to run it normally, I just need to delete the Groups.cache file.  So I decided to give it a shot...  And VOILA!  It's now uninstalling!  @.@  Wouldn't have figured that'd be the same problem for uninstalling the darn thing.  LOL

[caffeinated.joy]

I'm glad to read you've solved your problem, Crystallyne; however I would like to ask that, next time, you use the edit button to add to your original post instead replying to yourself, please.

[Crystallyne]

Forgive me, I know better and should have edited yes.  Sorry.

And as it turns out I was wrong.  After deleting groups.cache I got it to respond and start the process of Uninstalling.  However, I decided to go ahead and back up a few more files first.  Did that and went back to start again with Uninstalling...  And it is once again unresponsive.  No groups.cache file to delete now.  And I am back to square one.

*starts banging her head against a wall in frustration*

[rwills]

First, it would help to know what your operating system is (XP? Vista? Win7? 32-bit? 64-bit?). And to make sure you are logged on with admin privileges.

Second, make sure to uninstall in reverse order of release order of EPs/SPs (for example, if your have just Base game, Pets and Apartment Life installed, uninstall AL first, then Pets, then and only then base game).

Third, if -- if -- I'm reading your last comment correctly, it sounds as if a partial uninstall was done. That could well lead to some problems.

Try rebooting your computer and see if you can uninstall normally before doing anything else. Also might try booting up in Safe Mode and trying the uninstall from there.

If still a problem, and if the link below is compatible with your operating system, then a more robust uninstaller may be of use, as it can find partially uninstalled items and do the complete uninstall thing on them.:

http://download.cnet.com/Revo-Uninstaller/3000-2096_4-10687648.html

No guarantees, and would consider it a last resort before attempting a more complex folder/registry uninstall yourself. Make doubly sure, if using this more robust uninstaller, to not also inadvertantly delete your back-ups.

[Crystallyne]

Thank you, rwills.  I meant to mention before but I'm Windows XP.  So the Revo Uninstaller will work for me, and I will most likely try that next.

I was uninstalling in the right order, trying to start with Apartment Life.  When that filed to work I attempted to run Uninstall for the other expansions just to see if they would respond at all, and they weren't.  I wasn't very clear with my last post, but I didn't actually start the process of uninstalling anything.  I finally got the message to pop up asking me if I really wanted to uninstall everything, warning me that it would make my neighborhoods incompatible.  I closed that message (wish I hadn't now) and went to back up a few more files before I tried again, and discovered it wasn't working again.

And yeah, I've rebooted a few times and went straight to try and uninstall the programs and it still wasn't responding.  Just frustrating.

So I think the new Uninstaller is my next step.  I've moved my back ups to my new hard drive in a folder with a completely different name, so there should not be any reason at all for the uninstall program to remove them as well.  But I will keep my eyes open on that.

EDIT: The Revo Uninstaller worked perfect.  All expansions removed, and my back ups are still in place.  (In fact it didn't even remove the files from My Documents, probably because the default uninstall program is being so buggy.)  Now just have to reinstall everything and I'm back in business.  That Revo Uninstaller will come in very handy in the future too.  Thank you rwills.