Need Help Backing Up My Game

[gerrr00]

I have become an avid reader on the forum.  So with that, I really want to back up my game now.  I read the topic on how to back up and understand it.  But I have 2 thumb drives, 2 gigs each.  The file that I am supposed to copy is 2.3 gigs.  Is it safe to separate the data on 2 different drives?  Or are there files that I absolutely have to have and others I can do without?

I have about 5 different people playing TS3 on my computer, so there are many games saved.  I have also purchased more than I want to admit from the EA store.  Thank you in advance for your wonderful advice!

[Archer0]

Should be fine.  Just make sure you return the backed up files to their exact, original locations.

[Saltypaws]

If it is one file that is 2.3, I am wondering if you can actually split it up, if there is no breaking point, so to speak.  How would you know if it came to the end and then put the rest of the file on another drive?  I know what you are saying Archer, but not sure about splitting up one file.  I could be wrong and have been so before, was just making an observation.

[Pam]

I'm moving this topic to the Technical Help board.

[gerrr00]

@ Pam, sorry and thank you for putting me in the correct place!

I am very computer illiterate.  In the topic it said to go to this file: Windows 7 and Vista: C:\Users\"Username"\Documents\Electronic Arts\The Sims 3, then right click and choose copy.  I am very good at copy and paste.  But when I tried to paste that folder on my one thumb drive, that is when it said it was too large.  I did open the folder and there are many other files in there.

That is what I am wondering, if it is safe to open the folder and choose enough to fill up one drive and then finish on the other.  Or are there files that I don't need to back up from the Sims 3 folder and still have all my saved games and cc from the store.  Is that better?  Sorry I am so awkward with my computer speak and comprehension.

If it is possible to leave files out from my backup, that would be great, then I would only have to keep an eye on one thumb drive instead of two.  But if not, I will survive.  Thanks again.

[Saltypaws]

If it was me, I would get a drive that was large enough to hold the entire folder, that way, you would be assured that it was altogether and not divided up, in fact, I was thinking of doing the very same thing.  They are so inexpensive, that I am thinking of getting a couple of 3 or 4 gig drives to back up some game files.

Like I said, that is just my opinion on putting it on one.

[Jancy]

I would also get a larger thumb drive to keep all the Sim files in one place. 
Another option would be a large external drive which you could use to back up everything on your computer. 
That way your sims, documents, photos and everything else would be safe and backed up incase of harddrive failure.

[Telsey]

This is a subject that I have been wondering about.  I want to put my Sims3 game files on a thumb drive.  Does anyone have a clue how big would be big enough, keeping in mind that there will be more expansion packs coming out and I intend to buy them all.  I have bought several collections from the Sims store as well.  Also, how do you go about getting the files back onto your computer or onto another computer so that they will be in the right place?  Does that elliminate having to reinstall all the games should you have a crash?  I used to be really good at all this with Sims2 but I don't have a clue about anything with Sims3. 

[gerrr00]

I ended up buying a bigger thumb drive but somehow I misread the amount of space I needed and am still short (have almost 6 gigs total)!  But I had just enough room on the 2 drives I own to back-up.  Hopefully this holiday season will have some good sales since I am going to need to get at least 16g drive.  Wish me luck that I don't need them and ended up misplacing one of the drives.  Thank you for everyone's input!

@Telsey I was trying to post a reply when I got a warning and here is your post!  You still have to have the discs to install the game on your computer.  All I am backing up is my current games, downloads from the Sims store and the exchange, screenshots, videos, and other stuff I am not sure what it is.  Backing up only protects your current games from your last save before backing up.  I am fairly confident this is correct information that I am typing to you.  You should have your backup somewhere else then on your computer, copy it to another computer, DVD-roms (which sounds inconvenient), thumb drives, an external hard drive, which ever you choose.

[Carl]

Right. You have to have the CDs when you reinstall windows. It makes registry entries and the like which must be present in the Windows install in order for the game to operate.

To gerrr: You might look into reducing the size of the screenshots if they are a large part of the space. Each shot can be over a megabyte in size. Irfanview is a good program for batch converting a large amount of shots at once into a smaller format. In most cases you don't need FULL quality, but can reduce the size significantly with the program and still have decent shots. All the pictures on the guide are shrunk in size width and height wise and brought to a slightly lower quality, reducing space by about 75% of the originals.

[Telsey]

Thanks guys that all makes sense.  I was hoping to avoid reintstalling the CD's though.  LOL  I guess I need to invest in a large thumb drive.  I have a huge external hard drive that I use but I think the thumb drives are easier.  They had talked me into this really large external drive but I think it slows my Sims game down when it is plugged in.