Insimenator.org

I finally decided that I was going to uninstall the entire game, and build it up again from scratch. And despite reading repeated warnings not only on this site, but many others, to make backups: What did I not do?! And now I'm going to have to go recheck every website I've ever visited and hope that I can find all the stuff... Ugh. Anyone else ever done this?

Yeah ,I've done that 6 times ,also with this EP ,but in the end I'm always happy to start over again .
The game runs faster and I'll try other downloads ,just a brand new start:-P

I just uninstalled and reinstalled. I actually save all my downloads on my system then move them to disks. I plan on getting a external drive just for all my Sims files so I never lose them again. When my system crashed a few months ago I lost ALL my downloads both pay and free From as far back as when Sims 2 first started having custom content.

 I am heartbroken that the one thing I really LOVED the site is now gone.
 The site was Sims 2 Lux I wish I could find those dogs again. They done a great Pit Bull, Rotti, and Doberman. They were the BEST. They are gone now forever. Even the graveyard does not have them :0((

It is a time consuming thing but I honestly have found so many new things that I do not miss that much the older things. Well ok except those dogs. :0(
I did find that looking through the finds pages and archives was a huge help.

Good Luck

One time I have all lost when I have installed one EP (Nightlife or OFB). Since I make a save at each installation / reinstallation / or in any time...
But the more important (for me) isn't the downloads who can be redownload without problem but the stories of the families. :roll:

Ok it's not a good news for you but you're are not an idiot, error is human :p.
Good suite to you Bloody Tears. :)

To Phoenix and others who had this unfortunate experience of losing their stuff when installing or from a game crash:

At http://files.sims2graveyard.com/
you can find a lot of stuff from closed sites, including items from Sims2Lux.

Sorry about losing those dogs, though.

This is the first time that I've forgotten to copy my downloads folder :'( I've spent the last couple of hours trawling various websites getting my downloads back. The one advantage though is that this time, I'm organising everything. I've got sub-folders for clothes, genetics, default replacements, bodyshapes, hacks etc. and checking everything that I'm installing and making sure it's stuff I really want, as opposed to the random things that I always ended up getting as well. Problem is that since Squinge isn't making anything new, and all his other hacks are gone too I can't get things like my pregnant sims wear any outfit hack, and various other ones. Combine that with all the custom sims that I've downloaded and now lost and it's just a pain in the ass!
Error may be human, but I still feel like a moron! :)

Thats same as me :D Its cool starting afresh :)

I've never done that. I am very anal with my downloads. I have stuff I've downloaded when the base game first came out. I just have no desire to start all over again. Some of that stuff would be impossible to find.

And even though I don't play the Sims 1 anymore, I still have all my Sims 1 downloads backed up on CD. :)

@Bloody_Tears: Squinge's mods can also be found on that link vita4all posted. Just be aware that they're no longer supported, and mods like pregnancy wear any outfit has had mixed reports concerning BV. That said, a lot of his mods will work, it's just a case of choosing carefully :)

well when my hubby decided to muck with our comp, he effectively made it not work. SO we got a new one, meaning no sims nothing for me... :( After getting the new comp we found nothing got wiped from my hard drive. So I still have all my sims stuff.

Needless to say I started with a clean install for BV on the new computer. In the long run it was probably the best idea to do too. Now I can actually organize my downloads as I put them in :)

yeah, that's what I'm doing. It's just a long and extremely tedious process. I haven't actually played it since I reinstalled as I've been so busy trying to download all my stuff again. It's going quite well.

I have done that at least once with two or three different expansion packs. I tell you this, it is no fun searching for and re-downloading thousands of files.  :-x I am a hardcore downloader, that reminds me got get rid of some of this stuff.

Oh gawd yes! I do it constantly. espesh when the game crashes due to a download. So now I go to my safe sites. And Zip my download folder when I'm finished and put them in my documents. It's saved alot of heart ache!
xx

I did it once and it was not fun!

hmmm i do it every time i put in a new expansion pack XD but thats just becuse it takes to long to back-up everything i want to so i just scrap it all and start over again, quite happily i might add.

Thank you Vita  and Thank you for the link.
My game files actually were lost due to a computer dying and taking everything with it.
When the game died it only took what wa actually installed from the collection I have started since getting my new system Thankfully I have recovered rather well.
 I lost close to 50 or 60 GB's worth of files. Thanks to Many close friends sending me things through email to help me recover things and The Graveyard and that site no one can name. I have managed to recover many files I once had. Let me add that I did PAY for MANY of those files and FEW of those I contacted regarding it even acknowledged my email.

 I just REALLY Miss those darn Sims 2 lux dogs especially that Pit Bull Terrier.  No one has made one quite like it. Since it was in fact a free file well no one seems to have it. That and few sites allow you to even post that you are looing for a file. Even when it is a freebie from a now gone site.

If anyone happens to have that file, I would be eternally grateful and am offering a small reward. :0)

Ugh... just happened to me; not my main game thankfully, I keep a separate one for my fantasy themed hoods. I'm using Numenor's AnyGameStarter, had trouble with his first version and found he updated. So, I back-up my existing folder, or try to, thought it hadn't copied properly and deleted the folder... you can guess the rest :doh: Thankfully I hadn't started playing, but what I had done was make a good few sims to start with *sniff*

Oh well, with any luck they'll turn out better than they did at first... Still gotta download all my themed stuff again though, and there was loads! :(

@phoenix: I found this (http://www.simsfilevault.com/) site recently if that's any help - I liked what I found so much I bookmarked it ;)

This is just my opinon but I thing you are ahead of the game. I have all the ep's and no matter what I backup and scan or reorganize I always end up in your exact position anyway. Currently I have only redownloaded the insimenator, a few of my must have hacks and only recolors. Believe me I do understand your fustration though and no matter who says what you are still pissed.

Thank you for the link. I am very familiar with that forum. Due to differences of opinions I no longer visit that forum. I still have many friends that are there and whom I stay in touch at other forums and in emails. I will also forever be loyal to it. I have had many a great time there and shared many a laugh and cry too for that matter. I have had friends check and have had no luck.

I think I may have to give up the search. These darn doggys are getting to be a pain. Thanks to the WCIF area I did locate some nice ones.
 I wish there was some way to get the old files off my old hard drive.

Thanks Again

I do it all the time. But i like starting over again too. And i always start in Pleasantview. I love that town. I keep all my downloads in discs pretty organzied so I just load it to my computer and BAM back in buisness. Or i just put the downloads on my desktop

I updated to the patch 1.1 last night and after that it would not let me enter lots. It would freeze with the blue family screen up, playing that awful techno-ish music for ten minutes. So I uninstalled and reinstalled, not knowing that it would delete my entire downloads folder :(

i decided to uninstall/reinstall my sims 2 but i was not as stupid as i was last time i did it! i now keep my .rar files in my documents as backup and put them into a cd when putting a new ep/sp in especially Bon Voyage but i didnt with pets.

Everytime I get a new Ep I start over from scratch...I try new things, new sims...it's exciting all over again.

OK - I am a really old hand at this sort of thing, I never fail to make a back-up... although sometimes in a fit of madness I have been know to reformat all my hard drives  and re-install windows from the grounds up and discover at that all important moment that my last back-up was un-burned and my most recent DVD back-up is from 6 months ago >_<

or sometimes I will decide that my desk is just a doomed mess and scrape everything on it into the dustbin and gleefully carry the bin-bag out to the curb -- only to remember that my latest DVD back-up was at the bottom of the heap... remember at 06h30 just as I hear the giant masher on the lorry reduce said back-up to flinders >_<

or sometimes through the glory and the mystery of EA,  during the install of a new EP or SP the update goes *boink*gag*choke*die*fizzle* and the entire user folder tree vapourises >_<

so no, I have no idea what you are talking about >_<

I'm getting that now with no patch installed :( About to try now I have a new graphics card, in the hope that extra memory will help, but if not I'm seriously considering patching it :?

I have a large hard drive so I backup about once every two weeks depending on how much I have added to the Downloads.  I also save everything that I download fron the web.  I save it by category, site I got it from and date.  I also save a picture of the Item.  If I get a file that cause problems, I delete that file, delete my "downloads" file and replace it with my latest backup.  This also helped me migrate my game to a new computer.

Thank guys for the story. I have never backed up my download folder, will start doing it from now.

please help!!! my sims carnt go on holiday without hearts and teddy bears ECT, popping up everywhere, on the beach and in doorways, ALL OVER THE PLACE. What do i do?:smt106

Download the updated Insim.

LOL!! I love it... :angel:

I have yet to actually toast my game. I was getting some nasty errors a few months ago. I'd had the game installed for 2 years with no problems at all, so I figured a reinstall might be in order after all this time. So I just backed everything up and started over with clean hoods. I've reinstalled my laptop game a couple times as well, but that's due to my Body Shop being the spawn of the thing from nightmare swamp...
I've just found that I don't dispose of my backups properly very often. I think I have around 70 gigs of extra backups just hanging around between my two hard drives. And we won't talk about the 50 gigs on my external drive that bought just for these backups... >_> <_<
In my case, the delete button is your friend...

I´ve also learned the hard way. But I also prefer to save only the DL Folder to the desktop when installing the new EP and letting all the stories start anew with different constellations! My DL Folder is like a tidy shelf and I know every piece in it, there is nothing needless in it. I learned to keep it like this after it was xxxGB and the game took 10 minutes for loading. Now I keep it just about 1GB, that´s just big enough! :)

I thought I had backed everything up.  Apparantly only got part of my downloads, so I have lost loads.  Still hunting for the lovely lemon house on a high cliff I downloaded and having finally sorted out my floating head problem it is back and I can't remember what download fixed it, so you have my sympathy.

yea ive done that like ten times before so im really dum and i dont blame u i always think i need to redo the whole sims:snorting:

i've done it before. it's not pleasant. i had to install evrything again and download my things over.it works faster than b4.

Yes, I don't mind starting over, since in my last game before my system crashed i had way to much cc. Now, I'm moderating my download amount.

Yes me too. So save the neighborhoods at least. ;)

Find the map to the "hidden burrow", then while on hols get the sim with the map to go there. Talk to Bigfoot enough to befriend him, but thankfully you don't need to move him in ;)

if i have to reinstall an episode i always put my download folder on my desktop nex i uninstall the episode that i need to reinstall when reinstalled i enter the game quit then replace my download folder that way i protec my custom content hope this tip helps you.

yea, that's happened to me. now I just move them to my hardrive for awhile until I can get everything back up. although there's nothing quite like a fresh start, I can't stand to lose all of my precious downloads...

Whenever I install a new game I make a copy of my downloads folder. Truthfully, most of my families aren't that important to me. Half the time I'm just playing with the maxis sims anyways.

But the starting fresh with downloads and organizing them is a great idea. I wish I had been more thoughtful when I first started out... 'cause that would've been so helpful. x.x I think I may do that one of these days... My game can't take another expansion without a good cleaning. I'm so attached to my downloads it's hard to do.