Hi guys, sorry for opening an useless topic but I'd like some advice from you.
The thing is I have to many downloads in my download folder (31.338 files, 6,41 GB). Most of them are default replacement for CAS and Buymode, but I also have plenty of non default stuff. The game itself is quite fluid, the graphics are amazing and apart from small problems (most of the time because of stuff I add to the game) I don't have any issue. Unfortunately, the loading screen takes up to 15 minutes (but passing from lot to lot is quite fast) and I was thinking of giving a fresh restart to the game, getting rid of all the downloads (except for the mods a few other things), probabily in maxis match and using repositored files.
I've already tryied everything to speed up the game, but anything does really make the difference. I used the CFF Explorer, renamed all the files removing all the special characters, I use the compressorizer and I always avoid to create subfolders.
That's how I organized it (the only folder with sub-folders is the Objects one because I sorted TS3/TS4 conversions by EP):


Moreover, I'm afraid that this could damage my current neighorhoods and I don't wanna risk it 'cause it's the first time I'm actually playing in the same without erasing 'em after a couple of months.
I know it's really a silly question but I feel so confused at the moment

Fifteen minutes doesn't sound like that long to me. I read or fold laundry during loading screens, myself. But your mileage may vary.

I'm afraid only you can balance the cost/benefit ratio of CC vs. loading time. My suggestion is this:

Back up your entire Sims2 folder to an external location.
Make sure you know which CC you have, if any, operates by installing an NPC, and make sure you isolate it into a well-marked folder called something like: NEVER DELETE THIS.
Collect your defaults into folders called: "Clothing defaults," "Building defaults," "Hair defaults," etc., as those are the things you're most likely to regret deleting.
Take out the downloads that don't make NPCs.
Open the game.
See how you feel about the result.
Put back things you actively miss.
Add new CC (face it, you'll keep downloading it) in a controlled and orderly manner under some kind of regimen. If you play rotations, for example, you might stop to back up at the end of a rotation, or at particular points in the rotation, and then add in accumulated CC all at once, compressing and renaming things as you put them in.
You can always return to your whole-game backup if the CC-less game doesn't work for you or you get tangled up and confused. And because you backed up the entire game, anything you take out will still be available without having to hunt down where you got it, finding out the site's been discontinued, and searching the graveyard.

I can't really advise about whether or not to start over, but what I do is use this method to clean my downloads folder for buy/build mode:

http://sushigal007.tumblr.com/post/...-your-downloads

It takes a while to do this, but I got rid of around 1G of junk after doing this. Good luck whatever you decide.

I miss the 15 minutes I had to wait for my game to load. It's reached 25 to 30 minutes after my last download binge.

IIRC, the only things that will cause trouble if they're deleted are non-default skins that Sims are using, social mods (mods that add an option to the pie menu) and the aforementioned NPCs. There are fixes for Sims using deleted skins, and you can get a mod to suppress the issue that comes from deleting social hacks. As mentioned, don't delete anything using NPCs (which are things like animated animals, the surfing hack, the animated bike and bumper cars, etc.).

Make sure which downloads should not be removed - make completely sure, I am not an expert on that.
Then first remove everything you do not use often, or might never have used.
Ask yourself: how many Sims do I need to dress? Do I have to have enough clothes here for one thousand and fifteen Sims? Or enough chairs for all the Sims of a megahood, plus every townie, so that each can sit on a different one? (I love chairs. They are my downfall ).

I certainly do not want to wait fifteen minutes for my game to start

Sounds pretty average to me, file size and loading times, but if you want faster yes you would need a smaller Download folder.

Do you have a laptop or a desktop? Upgrading to a SSD could do the trick. I have 6.48 Gb and 31 795 files and my game loads in less than 4 minutes.
I can't give an advice about what to do since I'm wondering the same sometimes. I feel I have lots of unused files in my game and I'm too lazy to do some cleaning.

So, the main problem is that I have a laptop (enough to play with maximum settings as I sayd for both Sims 2 and 4), with a dedicated videocard and 8 GB RAM.
Even when I download a compelte set I make sure I don't get 29402 recolor of the same thing, like 4 or 5 recolors per dress, 4 for the hair and up to 10 for an object.
I've just finished the cleaning for buy/build mode as suggested by @venusking, I'll see if there are real improvements and then I'll try with the CAS cleaning. I have to say, I never realized how many low textured, bad made, never used objects I had before lol
Thanks a lot for your advice and suggestions, even if I've been playing and dealing with CC for years there's always something new to learn

I have my TS2 installed on 2 laptops and desktop. The desktop has a bigger hard drive than the 2 laptops. I have 15 gbs in my downloads folder. On my 2 laptops it only takes 20 minutes for my game to load. On the desktop it takes 30 minutes to 45 minutes for it to load. All 3 load fast from one lot to another. The differences are, since my laptops have less hard drive space my "My Documents" was sent to an external drive (you just have to remember to make sure the external drive is connected to the computer before you load your game) and my desktop has it's "My Documents" on it's hard drive. The more you have on your hard drive the slower your computer will run.

My start up loading screen take almost 30 minutes, with 1000+CC (without Default replacement), if your computer can take just 15 mnt i think its not necessary because it can make your Neighborhood mesed up if you do that. I already clean all CC in my Download folder, and just insert what is necessary CC the result is many Object in many lot I downloaded from this site flashing blue because i just place it in download folder before and not make any sub folder in there (still don't know before about sub folder in Download folder). Then i re-installed just to make new fresh all neighborhood and brand new start (although this is not necessary to re-install).

But everything is like Peni Griffin said, that you know the benefit and cost about your CC.

If your computer takes 30 minutes with only 1K of downloads then its seriously struggling. Mine takes about 20 minutes with 11 gigs. (44, 246 files) and I know mine is not up to snuff as it's six years old. A good gaming rig should handle 11 gigs+ in about 5 minutes. If I had only 1K it would load in about 3 minutes. I tend to think of mine as being on it's last legs.

Like others had said, we can't tell you what you SHOULD do about your DL folder. Do what you are comfortable of doing. If you feel that you need a clean slate, then go right ahead. Whatever you do, BACKUP everything before hand. It is better to be safe than sorry. With a backup, you don't have to search the interwebs to redownload something you downloaded in 2006.

I only have 4GB (not a lot) of stuff in my downloads folder, and my game runs smoothly. I'm currently playing HP's Mega-Uberhood, and it loads up in under a minute. My game only gets laggy, when sims change their appearance. I have so much hair and clothes.

ETA: Forgot to mention that my DL folder is a SSD drive, while the sims 2.exe is on a hard drive. I'm not sure if the SSD has anything to do with the fast loading times.

It's suppose to help a lot with loading.

It seems about the same speed as mine. I have 6.16 GB and to get to the main menu it takes ~12 minutes and another 2 to get into town. Loading the first lot can take a couple minutes but after that's it's much quicker. It all depends on how much time your willing to wait really, without upgrading computer parts that might make it faster. If you want to lessen the loading time then yes, taking out some cc or mods would help, just make sure it's something you can safely take out first (and i'm not an expert on that). Can't tell you what to do with your DL folder, that's up to you. I've gotten to the point where i'm trying to be very picky about cc I download but that said..sometimes ya just need something lol

That's slow for an SSD. Could be some other hardware slowing things down.

What is an SSD?

Solid State Drive
Essentially it's the technology which is going to replace hard drives. They're a lot faster and more reliable than hard drives, but they're also more expensive, and harder to recover data from after a failure (so you have to have good backups*).

*This is a very big issue for companies. It's much less of an issue for consumers, who usually can't afford to blow a few hundred euros on data recovery anyway, even with a traditional hard drive.

Well, I got rid of many files I don't really use, plus some orphan recolors (using both the tootip and the DDO) and the loading is a bit faster 'cause I deleted almost ~2 GB. I also started cleaning the PC (indeed I still had all Sims 3 plus EP but I never play it), to see if there's a general improvement in the general performance.
In the end I'm keeping my old download folder, not because there's so much stuff that I love but I'm not brave enough to restart from the beginning :D
Thanks again for all the replies and the tips

I'd be afraid to restart my downloads considering how many items are no longer available or just basically gone to cc heaven.

Compressing the files wouldn't hurt, either.

I completely agree, and I'm still so surprised when I wodnload something from a well-known CC creator and the files are not compressed. I mean, I'm don't expect to see stuff from a retired creator to be compressed, but I've been using it for ages... Also, I've read on the web that renaming the files, avoiding all the special charcters can help (so I use Bulk Renae Utility to clean all the new stuff). The fun part is getting rid of a download that has a slightly different name lol

My CC folder is 13+ GB, and it runs quite nicely, if I ignore the loading time, which is 15-20 something minutes. So, in my opinion, you are good to go. Still, it is your game, your computer, your CC, so, ultimately, your choice.

What are the fixes for deleting non-default skins? Does it not involve SimPE? I'm clearing up my CC folder and I want to get rid of my skins and insert default replacements. But I don't know how many of my sims are using the CC skins or which ones, although I think it is a really low number.

Also, does deleting non-default custom eyes cause a problem too? I think I read that somewhere.

Yes, you need to fix it in simpe. The sims will still play fine but their DNA will be borked.