Entire Town Disappeared!

[athena]

It was a heavy snowing day. The family decided to throw a gift giving party. After the party, there was a saving problem so I had to quit without saving. I decided to play the same family again and get one more try with the gift giving party. It went fine. I was able to save in the game. Family decided to skate at their own rink at their yard. They were skating and spinning fine. Then I hit the save error and I wasn't able to save the game again. When I returned to play again, the whole town disappeared! Help!!!  Prior to this, there are times when my game blacks out and just quits by itself. Happened only after Seasons installed. I have no cc but plenty of store contents. I was particularly using the Christmas tree holiday store content when this happened. Dunno if what caused what. Can I still get my town back? How? Thanks for your help! 😩

[Darien]

Did you try running the game without store content? Or loading an earlier save (if you have one)?

[Louise56]

It sounds like your game file is corrupt. This link will help.

http://www.carls-sims-3-guide.com/forum/index.php/topic,6.0.html

[smartburn]

Does the town show up on the list of available towns to play if you click on the list of towns in the main menu?  If not and your file is in a store or custom town, try uninstalling, deleting and reinstalling the town - it worked for me when Riverview randomly decided not to appear in the menu one day and all my save files in Riverview didn't show up in the game as a result.

Also check to see if your file has the .bad extension attached to it - if it does, see Louise56's link. Actually, look at it anyway, it's handy.

[athena]

Thank you for your replies. Follow up questions: How do I run a previously saved game? Will running it overwrite the current games? @ smart burn - No the town does not show up in the main menu list if towns, that's how I learnt it disappeared. How do I access the file names to see if there is a .bad extension to it? What folders is it in? Thanks!

[Pam]

Thank you for your replies. Follow up questions: How do I run a previously saved game? Will running it overwrite the current games? @ smart burn - No the town does not show up in the main menu list if towns, that's how I learnt it disappeared. How do I access the file names to see if there is a .bad extension to it? What folders is it in? Thanks!

I believe the answers to your questions will be in the link Louise provided.  After looking there, let us know if you still have questions.

[athena]

Thanks to all, I was able to get my town back when I followed the bad file recovery instructions. But when I played again, after five minutes, the game crashed again, blacked out. How much free space is needed to play the Seasons well? I need to know how many files I need to delete to free up for the game. I'm not sure if this info is mentioned anywhere?

[DanBrunetu]

This is the store set that you used ?  http://store.thesims3.com/setsProductDetails.html?productId=OFB-SIM3:24476

[athena]

Yes that's the one. I used two Christmas trees plus some wall decors for Christmas from another month. I used those to decorate the gift giving party. Are those store items bugged? What made you ask? Thanks!

[Pam]

No, they're not bugged.  However, I'm moving this to the Technical Help board now so that you can hopefully get some help with the continuing issues.

[athena]

Recovery of the bad files did not work. I got the message, "The game cannot start. Please re-install Base Game". That means I am at the end of my line.  So I read all the instructions here how to uninstall and reinstall. I've done it before in Sims2 when I transferred computers, but not in TS3.  I've got some saved games before Seasons, before the worlds began to crash, I may be using those.
However, the instructions do not say how to bring back my saved games after re-install. I know the answer is in here somewhere but I have to swim in so many entries in the technical section, I don't know where to begin.

How do I put back my saved games after I re-install? Will I get the store downloaded items back?
Will appreciate a short answer or a link.  Thank you! 

[DanBrunetu]

I asked about that store content to know if is the same that you used in-game, so i could test it to see if works without bugs. After testing it, it's clean 100%, so the store content isn't the problem. It's just a corrupt savegame. On the future try to use more savegame files, not to overwrite one savegame, so this way you may have an earlier savegame, that acts like a backup for your game. Always and always backup your savegames. you never know when something may go wrong. That's my advice...

[athena]

Sorry for being a dummy. I found how to replace the save files in the instructions. There are two instructions though, I'm confused, one says to back up the whole Electronic Arts folder and the other says back up Saves folder. Which is which? What should I follow? Thanks!