All houses and families lost!

[squidlet]

After not playing for a few months,  I bought Supernatural, loaded it up,  and then realised that all my created families and homes in all the different towns had vanished!  The only computer relevant thing I'd done was partition my hard disc into C and D drives to keep documents and photos, music etc separate from programmes.  I've looked in the Electronic Arts files and EA Games files (which are still there) but there is nothing in the 'Saved' directory,  nor anywhere else obvious.  I thought I'd made and saved to  a back-up folder about a year ago,  but can't find this either.  Am I making some basic error or have I really, disastrously lost about five years of families and housebuilding?  Any help gratefully accepted

Danny

Am using full set of Sims 3 Expansions, Windows 7, fairly high-end desktop

[donatello]

Wow... Ok... Best thought I have is to search both partitions then? I'm sorry but that's seriously all I can think of. Search for .sims3 is my thinking.

[Ricalynn]

After not playing for a few months,  I bought Supernatural, loaded it up,  and then realised that all my created families and homes in all the different towns had vanished!  The only computer relevant thing I'd done was partition my hard disc into C and D drives to keep documents and photos, music etc separate from programmes.  I've looked in the Electronic Arts files and EA Games files (which are still there) but there is nothing in the 'Saved' directory,  nor anywhere else obvious.  I thought I'd made and saved to  a back-up folder about a year ago,  but can't find this either.  Am I making some basic error or have I really, disastrously lost about five years of families and housebuilding?  Any help gratefully accepted

Danny

Am using full set of Sims 3 Expansions, Windows 7, fairly high-end desktop

What did you do with your "The Sims 3" folder?   The Saves folder within it would have held all your games.  The Library folder would have held all your saved families to the household bin.   Did you move the folder before you installed?  Did you reinstall or uninstall since the last time you played?  If you moved The Sims 3 folder, the moment you started the game up another one would have been generated which wouldn't have any of your information in it.  Not even your store downloads.

[Odie]

To add to the what the rest have said... even if you really would have deleted everything, nothing is really gone untill it is overwritten. There are certain programs you can use to recover your deleted files.

Although I am not sure if it is still there after making partitions...

Edit: Anything you have created yourself and uploaded to your studio at the official sims 3 website, will still be on that website. You can download them again through the exchange, just like everybody else can download them from you.

[squidlet]

Thanks all for advice

Donatello - have looked through both partitions superficially via IE, but will do a search against .sims3 as you suggest
Ricalynn - I don't think I moved my Sims3 folder when I moved stuff between partitions.  In fact because I has a similar (tho not as extreme) problem a few years back I was very careful not to touch the Sims folders.  I've still got various folders inc 'Library' where there is only one file.  I didn't uninstall / reinstall anything since I last played,  and since I moved stuff between partitions and then loaded Supernatural today.  I don't use the store or mods or anything but vanilla Sims3
Odie - can you point me towards the restore programmes you mention please.  You are right that a single new saved file now seems to have bee created

Further suggestions welcome

Thanks all again

Danny

[Odie]

Hi Danny,
First of all, you really should have made a backup of everything before making partitions.
It could work without files getting deleted, but then all your sims folders should have their normal content. If it is deleted, so should the installation of the game. So it is weird that your game is still installed, but all your folders in Documents are empty.
By the way, it was Ricalynn who understood that a new sims 3 folder was created and not me.
Maybe you have deleted it by accident. Have you checked in your bin?
Have you done what Donatello said and searched for .sim3 files?
Plus have you checked what I said earlier: your studio at the sims 3 website?

If you don't have it in your bin and nothing in your studio, you could try recovery programs. You can find those on the internet. I am not such a whizz that I know all about them. Absolutely not. I just know that my hubby used one once, called easy undelete. But there are many more. Of course I don't know if you can get it back this way, but if nothing else works you could try it. Good luck with it!

[squidlet]

Hi Odie
Unfortunately I didn't use studio - I'm a bit of a basic (though very long term) player!
Have searched for .sims3 files and found a few references but the paths were not recognised when i tried to find them
Yes,  with 20:20 hindsight I should have made backups when I did the partitioning,  but as i didn't actually move any Sim-related material then I assumed (probably wrongly) it wasn't necessary
Have checked bin - nothing there
Will explore the restore programme universe - but if that doesn't work looks like I'll need to start again form scratch - an interesting experience!  Or else back to Mediaeval which I've been plying for the last few months (and am getting rather bored of)

Thanks for your suggestions

Danny