I have a bunch of hacked objects and everything had been working perfectly until recently. checking on other forums seems to hint that this error comes from some text-based script having accidentally gotten corrupted and said that the bets way to fix it was to reinstall the game. Now I have a bunch of skins and buildings and objects I don't want to lose. I can easily add /replace the objects and skins as it is, but I don't know where to move the houses + people living in them and i really don't want to lose everything I've created... do you know any alternate solution to this? If not can you guide me on how to transport all this?

I've never done it myself, but you're supposed to be able to copy your Sims folder and, after a reinstall, simply put it back where it was. I guess it rewrites the files that are there already. I would be careful about reinstalling all of the downloaded items because they are the source of your problem. I'd probably put them back one or two at a time and test them in game. Your houses are in UserData#/lots folders. Your people are in characters with numbers assigned to each character. I think those two folders would get your families and houses back.

thanks I'll tyr that. I'll copy the whole maxis folder to another drive, uninstall the game,reinstall it and see what happens from there.

Write back when you're done and let us know how that turned out.

By the way, you can copy the game and keep it in the same drive (c). It's not an issue. Just label it "copy" or something like that.

In fact, if you reinstall the game, the objects and skins you downloaded will stay. If you want to keep one or some of the neighborhoods you can cut them and put them somewhere safe before you uninstall the game and put them back after you reinstall it. I tried this so many times recently.

Michael, are you suggesting installing right on top of an existing installation? When I reinstall, I usually clear everything, including the registry, so that I get a clean install.

No. What I mean is if you uninstall the game just by using "uninstall a program" in the "Control Panel", you will have all new "Userdatas" ONLY but everything remains the same when you install the game again. Otherwise, you will have to delete the "everything" from the "Program Files" too to get rid of the whole of it completely.

Interesting. You've done this successfully? It isn't recommended and I thought the reason was that some things left behind could prevent a full and complete installation. In fact, there's a program on one the the disks called the "Eraser" for taking care of some of the left over pieces after you've uninstalled from the control panel, but even that doesn't get it all. I've had to go through the registry as well. I'm glad it's worked for you, but it does go against all recommendations, so I don't think I'd do it myself.

Your game must be the "Complete Collection" one so you have the "Eraser". Mine is the older version just called "The Sims 8in1" and it does not have the "Eraser", so if I want to make a clean installation like you said I have to delete the remaining of the game in the "Program Files".

I had the "Complete Collection" installed three years ago but to install it needs to change discs and takes much longer time. The installation of "The Sims 8in1" is fully automatic and takes only four minutes to finish the whole thing. As I have to uninstall the game from time to time for fun, I therefore have no alternative but to use the latter one.

No, I don't have the "complete collection". The Sims Eraser is on one of the disks.

I found this at this on the topic:


The link doesn't work, but I found a copy here: http://gamingnerdsrus.co/forum/inde...a=view;down=438

There's more to a clean and complete uninstall than just deleting folders. You can google it and probably get better results than this, but on the following forum, if you read a few entries down, someone gives the registry entries to delete. Frankly, the list looks a little short from what I remember: http://forums.thesimsresource.com/i...-the-right-way/

Why do you need to uninstall your game from time to time?

Thanks for link! I really don't know the reason. May be it's a habit or just for fun. I did this to the Sims 2 & 3 also. But by the end of last year I uninstalled both of them since I didn't feel they were interesting to play anymore.

I installed the Sims again yesterday and this time I copied all the neighborhoods before I started playing it. So now I can play whatever way I like.

By using the Transmogrifier, I reduced the price of all the objects to a very low level, so all the houses I built were under $20,000 including lot 1 & 2. This saves a lot of trouble to move in families to expansive houses. I have downloaded some celebrity heads and also by the help of the SimMetamorphoser I "extracted" a number of male and female heads from the game itself. This way I can change Sr Goth into the look of Mortimer or any other male head I extracted. This is a real fun. I don't know if other simplayers did this before?

Umm...I've changed some of the characters using the program at Sims Wardrobe (which I can't get to work now, nor can I download most things at that site anymore!), but I usually keep the Goths and the Goth Sr.s just as they are. I really like them! I do improve their interests so they can have better conversations and relationships with one another. I use a transporter device to move Cassandra in for extended stays so she can hang out with her grandparents.

I've never tried the transmorgrifier for anything. Do you prefer that to the money cheat (ctl+shift+C Rosebud; enter as many times as you want)? I used to use Rosebud when I first started playing the game before I got hooked into trying the strategies the game offers for making money. I find it more fun without the cheats.

If you reinstall just to clean out your downloads to get the original neighborhoods back, you don't have to do that. You could copy your downloads folder and your neighborhood folders and just redo that part when you need to. Personally, I love the first two neighborhoods so much that I copied them and then put them into my game as neighborhoods 3, 4, 4, & 6. That way I can play several "versions" of the same hood with different scenarios.

I didn't really mean to change Sr Goth's head into Mortimer's. Just to let you know I was able to swarp the in game heads since I extracted 10 female and 9 male heads from the game. So I don't need to go to Create-Family to do the work.

I think all simplayers may use the Rosebud cheat at the beginning. I downloaded 2 money cheat objects but don't have to use them anymore after I cut down the price of all the objects I like to use in build and buy mods.

As I said before I have made copies of all the Userdatas so I can play any new neighborhood whenever I like without doing any uninstallation.