Question about cloneing a drive with Sims 4 installed (Solved)

[ModHunter]

Good morning (yes, it's early in the morning over here).

Please excuse me for asking so many questions but  I'm not familliar with how things work. Only a few years ago I thought I had an idea of how computers did work but then everything changed in a hurry... 

But anyway, it seems like the disk, the HDD in my laptop is starting to fail on me and I need to change it (at the same time I will upgrade to a SSD). The idea is to clone the existing drive straight off instead of doing a restart. But how will that work with a game like the Sims 4 what is so connected to Origin? Older games like the Sims 2 was installed on the harddrive and had all it's files there. It could be runned without logging in to Origin first. Even if my Sims 4 game is in a offline mode i suspect that Origin will have some control over it and will this make it impossible to clone the gamefiles? The game is installed on the computer but how much of it is there and how much is hanging around  in cyberspace? As told, back in the days everything was easy to understand, now it's all too complex... 

[Trip]

Hey there. TS4 should survive onto a cloned drive. The files and your saves are all offline and the online portion is only for the Gallery, Sims Delivery, patching, and services like that.

Even the worst case scenario is likely a game repair.

Good luck with the SSD move. It really helps this game and cuts down on the time in loading screens (they're still there but what can you do?)

[ModHunter]

Hello

Thanks for the reply, it was very helpful. Yes, I do know that a SSD is way faster then a mechanical disk. I have a SSD in my desktop computer and with that disk the game runs way faster. 

[Brian_Z]

On my computer, my user became corrupted.  I had no idea that was a thing, but it is.  Once I figured out how to create a new one and grant it admin status, I had to copy EVERYTHING over to the new user.  All I had to do to get into TS4 again after that, was to log into Origin as if I were on a different device.  All saves, CC, mods, etc. were fine after that.
I've just discovered I've got a much bigger problem with my flight simulator, FSX Steam Edition.  It forgot ALL of my settings.  I've got a yoke, pedals, and 2 throttle quadrants linked together, and had a lot of keys and buttons customized over quite a long period.  That's going to take me a while getting it all back the way I want it.

[MrsFlynn]

Cloning the drive should work. As in your files will be safe.

However, Origin may want you to verify Sims 4's game files to get the game to work. This might be a problem if this is your offline game as it might want to update Sims 4.

Origin by default will ask to verify game files every so often regardless if you play online or offline.

[ModHunter]

Thank you for the replys.

Reading that the transfer (cloning) will be easy and that my files would be safe. 

The reason that I decided to take my game offline was that I did read that the patches was breaking mods in the game and as I'm playing with custom genetics in my game I did disable the game updates. To be absolutely sure nothing would happen I also decided to  disable the Origin updates. This was an overreaction but I thought "better safe than sorry". So the Origin client now wants a update to keep me online and it does "kick me out" after logging in. With a message telling me why of cause... I'm think that my game do get verified through the Origin client  but I'm not sure. I think it would be OK to update the Origin client without having it interfere with my game files but I'm not sure... 

[MrsFlynn]

It should be okay to update the Origin client. But I am not sure if it will still want to verify your Sims 4 game files before it will let you play or not.

[ModHunter]

By "verifie", do you mean the "log in" action? I always have to do that for unknown reasons (It says that updating the Origin client do not enable automatic game updates but I do not trust it... And I really do not want any updates for the game... especially not after reading this news: https://simscommunity.info/2022/03/25/save-game-is-becoming-an-issue-in-the-sims-4/ (the "fix" was to save the game online...  ).

[MrsFlynn]

Right, You always have to log in into Origin, or else you can't do anything.

What this means is Origin will need to ensure the files in the game and its registry settings are installed and configured correctly.  This may happen even if you've cloned your drive. It does happen after a major shift in the files such as copying it to a new hard drive.

Origin has to be online for this and in this instance you will be forced to update the game as that's part of the verification process. 

Essentially, Origin compares files to the Origin server files and updates any files that don't match.

[ModHunter]

Yeah, as sad as it seems, that was the only option. My computer is fine now. My co-worker, who were so very friendly and did the job when I finally did order a SSD disc, said that my laptop was the slowest thing he had worked on. But now it's fast. And, as told, I had to update the game. In true tradition I did pull the Mods folder out before the (very slow) update. After a first upstart I did close the game down and after re-opening it my mods seemed to work. At least it did look so.  I hope it's true and that I can get back to play offline as before. id dig not see that the Goths had changed (not the thumbnail anyway) but there were some changes in the game. There should be some new stuff too but I was told I could not access it before restarting the game. So if this works, the question is solved.

[MrsFlynn]

After Origin and the game has been fully updated you can play offline.

Note: After a while, not sure how long, it will ask you to update Origin and the game.

I don't play any Origin games offline, so I don't know how long it will allow you to play offline.

[ModHunter]

As it was before Origin used to disconect me of the client needed an update and I did not install it. Before even typing in my password I could make the choise to update origin or play offline. I hope that's still the same. Well, I'm not going tobplay until this weekend so I can not say now if my game works good or not. I will have to test that.

[ModHunter]

It seems to me it's not the same  Or maybe it's me doing something wrong. I must log into the Origin client now and whiloe in ther i can choose to go offline. Though it still seems like I'm online... I don't understand. All updates of the game and the client is disabled so I think my game is safe from updates. At least, I did not get asked to install the most recent one...

[MrsFlynn]

That's correct, you do have to login and then select go offline.   It sounds like you're still able to play though, so that's good!!

[ModHunter]

Hello again.

I'm very sorry that I still can not close this thread but since the update things seems to be completely off rails. 

I just opened up the game and for some reason I must go offline manual each time I do enter the Origin client. Now I don't trust this because this means that I do not have the total control over my game. And how do I know it's so? Well, that the game did open up a random family is a clue. Last time I played that install I did quit from "Manage worlds" and the family that now did open up had not been played in a long time. And one of the sims did die because she were to cold. Cold? She lives in Oasis Springs, it does not even snow there! Oh well, I was able to save her and I did turn off the setting that make sims affected by temperatures. Neighborhood stories is, as before, turned off.

But the main subject remains: How do I get rid of all this unwanted things? I want to start my game in a Offline mode, pick out the family I want to play myself and the game should not pick out sims to kill of because it want's to. I do have a desktop with Sims 4 installed and as the Origin client is not updated I'm always offline. The game itself runs perfectly and I have the total control over everything.  So how do I do that to the other install? I refuse to play the updated game before I know how.

Edit: I just went into the desktop install. It has patch level 1.65.70.1020 and the temperature effects are On. But so far no one have been killed by cold. Not even that random kid that keeps walking around the worlds during snow and ice wearing nothing but a towel and boots (the game did not give him any proper cold weather clothing).

Edit2: I did try posting this to EA help but for some reason it won't work. the system claims there is some problem with the post... No, there is not!