Can't find my family anywhere, could it be deleted?

[Betta91]

Hello, greetings from a norwegian sims geek :-)

I've reasently installed the sims 3 pets, and after I did that my game has often "stopped" working. In the middle of a game, it just shuts down and I have to restart everthing (just the game). In that way, I often save my game because I know the game will eventually stop working. But yesterday, I was quitting the game as I was ready to go to bed so I moved my computer (unplugged the computer charger), and in the middle of the "saving" mode, my computer went out of power. So i restarted the computer (well knowing I didn't finish the save in the game) and shut the computer down properly (didn't start the sims 3 again, it takes too long and I was tired!) So when I started my game today, I couldn't find my family! I was upset, because I've reached so far in the game and it would be sad to have lost everything (houses, families etc). And I tried to do what Carl told in his description about going with the backup file in "Saves", but it didn't work. It seems to be that the legacy has some how been deleted from the entire game and folders in the EA documents.

What do I do?! I can't find my familiy anywhere, and the wierd part is that I've saved the family for so many times (because my game shuts down without warning), so it should be somewhere in the EA document folder... but it isn't. Could it be that I somehow deleted my legacy because the computer shut down in the middle of a save?

[KrispyNickyB]

Well I'm afraid your game is probably gone. It's very possible and likely your game will be lost if the computer loses power mid save.

Let's see if we can help the "stopped working" problem. What's your computer? Ie windows or a mac? how much memory do you have? What is your graphics card? Do you have any custom content installed?

[Betta91]

Ah, thats too bad cause I had really gotten far. But, fortunately, I actually saved the family and the house, but thats a long time ago, so I'd have to play it all over again + the legacy is gone (the first generation I made, only copied the second generation). And I have to start a new game. But I don't really understand why my legacy would be deleted just because the computer looses power mid save? I've saved before, many times, so why was it deleted this time? What triggered it?

I have a Windows 7 computer, acer. I have 48 GB on disc C, and there's only 1 GB left... the disc D is the same (48 GB) and its 10 GB left. In other words, I have a hell of alot on my computer! I don't really know what a graphics card is. And yes, I have approximately 3,36 GB of downloads in my game. I know its a lot, but I had the same amount before I installed the sims 3 pets, but after I installed pets, the game has somehow been shutting down from time to time. It depends what I do in the game, it doesn't shut down if I only stay in a household and play, but its when I'm furnishing or make sims, it stops. The point is, its after I installed the sims 3 pets the problem has occured.

Thank you for your answer, btw :-)

[Hosfac]

First off, I'd like to say welcome to our little community!

But I don't really understand why my legacy would be deleted just because the computer looses power mid save?

The reason is likely because the save wasn't completed when your computer lost power.  If that file doesn't have all the necessary information, the game may not recognize it as a save file.  And even if it did, it's possible that the game wouldn't be able to load it anyways.

But before you give up on it, take a peek at this thread about recovering corrupted game files.  There's a chance that it could solve your problem.

[Justwright]

Sorry about your family, Betta91.  I've had that happen before too.

Here is my trick for saving games.  First, I save at leave once each sim day, usually when all are asleep.   Also, I do not just do SAVE, I do SAVE AS and I rename the save each time.  For example, I have Smith Family 1, the next time, Smith Family 2.  For saves after that, I overwrite the saves, alternating between 1 and 2.  Then, if I have a situation like yours, I at least have a save from the sim day before.

Good luck getting your family back.