Stuck in neighborhood loading screen

[esten]

So I have this predicament. After changing the names of some sims in SimPE, I am no longer able to play my game. No matter which neighborhood I choose it will stay at the loading screen for that particular neighborhood. I have reset my neighborhoods, taken out my downloads, and removed the config folder in hopes of fixing it. Nothing is working. The only time that it did work is when I removed absolutely everything from the EA folder, and the game reset it, but that doesn't help me play the games that I spent time on. Any suggestions on how to fix it?

ETA: I also deleted all the caches and the neighborhoodmanager

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[HobbesED]

I would restore the backup of the game I took before changing things in SimPE. Oh? You didn't make a backup before using SimPE to edit game files? Well... chances are that you will now the next time. Did you have SimPE make copies of the files it changed so you could simply rename and replace? That would have been a wise precaution as well.

I've never had the game stuck at the neighborhood load screen, only at the lot load screen. You say you did delete the groups.cache file? That file can cause a multitude of problems when what is cached in it no longer matches the game files. I would definitely ensure that the groups.cache file is gone.

Did you try using SimPE to undo your changes?

Otherwise, since the game does come up vanilla, you might try adding back in a few folders at a time to that vanilla EA folder and see when it starts failing again. That might help narrow down the suspects.

[SilverFox]

HobbesED, how often do you make a Back UP ?  Presume your file is quite large, mine is 31 gigs not counting the EPs.  Downloads and Hoods is about 22, presume that would cover most problems.   

[HobbesED]

HobbesED, how often do you make a Back UP ?  Presume your file is quite large, mine is 31 gigs not counting the EPs.  Downloads and Hoods is about 22, presume that would cover most problems.   

It depends what I've been doing and what I'll be doing. If I'm about to make changes to a particular hood using SimPE, then I backup that hood before I make the changes. That "backup" is simply copying the folder(s) that may be affected someplace else. I have a good enough understanding I think to know what files SimPE will be changing with the various changes I make using it. If the change works and after I've played with it a while without problems, I'll delete those backed up files.

If I've been playing a particular hood for a while - months say - and I remember, I'll copy its files off somewhere with a notation as to what date it was just so I won't lose all progress I've made on that hood if a problem does come up.

I'll copy my Downloads folder off (25 GB) when I've played for a while and haven't noticed any problems with it. I also keep new downloads separate from the rest until I've played them for a while to make sure they don't introduce a new problem. That way I can back out those latest downloads much more easily if they do cause problems.

Once a year, I try to make a full copy of the UC folder and everything underneath it (about 50 GB) to a separate storage device and then burn DVDs to back up that storage device.

Currently I have backups going back 7 years to when I got this current computer and copied my hoods from my old computer over to it.

So - a full folder backup once a year, downloads/hoods backups at times during the year, and "temporary" backups when making potentially hazardous changes using SimPE or other game editing software.