Playing from a copied folder?

[Tycobb]

Hello, I intend to reformat my computer in the coming days.
My question is if it's allright to make a copy of the Electronic Arts folder in Program Files and My Documents, paste it in my external HDD
and then pasting it back into the same places after the reformat is done?

[Saltypaws]

I don't see why you couldn't do that or you could transfer it to a thumb drive, if your computer has the slot and it is large enough.  I think it would work either way.  I have read where either way has been successful.  Good luck.

[TGBlank]

It's ok to do it, but you won't be getting it to work that way without making a copy of the relevant registry files.

[Swede1992]

In my opinion, the most simple thing would be to copy and save the save files themselves externally, then re-install the game the normal way and just paste the save files back in the relevant folder.

[gerrr00]

I had my Sims folder copied to a thumbdrive.  My desktop needed to have a factory reset.  I'm not sure what a reformat is.  Anyways, I had to re-install everything, I plop my copy of my Sims folder into my documents and had no problems when I played it. 

[Tycobb]

Cool, yeah I was worried about the game not being in the computer's registry.
My reason for doing this is because I do not have the game's disc with me so I can't reinstall it.
I guess I'll try it out with copy and paste first  and try to get the disc in the meantime.
Oh btw, reformatting is like a factory reset. You basically wipe off everything in the cpu and install them back. It's like getting a new computer!

[TGBlank]

On the "how to uninstall xxxx manually", which are there in the rare case the uninstaller doesn't do it's job, you'll find which registry entries you need to backup in order to make things work.
If you don't want to go that route, just backup the sims 3 folder in your documents folder, and paste it (or the bits of it you are interested in) on top after reinstall.

oh btw, reformatting is like a factory reset. you basically wipe off everything in the cpu and install them back , it's like getting a new computer!

Software-wise, at least.