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alimafion's avatar
alimafion
Not applicable
8 years ago

A Sims 4 Tragedy.

Fellow Simmers hold your sims close while I tell you this story of heartbreak, desperation and despair.
Our tale begins earlier today when I was deleting and transferring the last of the files from my old Mac to my new Mac and turning off iCloud since both computers were linked. I had just put the (seemingly empty) EA folder in the bin on my old Mac and pressed delete and proceeded to wipe old the Mac's hard drive ready for my sister and her husband to pay me the money for it and take it back home with them. "A job well done" I thought to myself. Thinking I'd finally get a chance to go on to my (current) computer and have some more time to start setting up my game for the new seasons expansion pack, I loaded the game in anticipation. I got onto the main menu page and all of a sudden the game started welcoming me to all the game packs and expansion packs I owned "This is odd", I thought to myself. I looked to the left of the screen only to see the big play button but no "load game" option. My heart dropped.

What.have.I.done.

Panicking, I quickly exited the game and went into my EA folder, I checked all the places where old files may be lurking, I did full system search of the computer to try and locate the files I desperately sought, the files that contain 4 years worth of story telling, house builds and characters I have created whom I have fallen in love with. Not to mention mods!

Gone.

Shock: I felt paralysed my brain was doing that white noise thing that televisions do.

Denial: This can't be happening, I must be having a nightmare, this isn't real life.

Anger: F0R F!@£$%^&*()!@£$%^&* SAKE!!!!. WHY AM I SUCH A F!@£$%^&* CLOWN!

Bargaining: I don't know how you bargain with a computer but I did another full system search and pleaded with it not to have deleted my files forever. It was not looking kindly in my favour tonight.

Depression: Sobbing into my large cup of tea, it genuinely felt like I had lost someone from my life. The Harpers - Gone! young Robert was going to be a doctor, his parents John and... I've forgotten the mothers name... were going to be so proud and leave him all their cash. He can no longer ruin his faithful Caterina's life and leave her pregnant and penniless, all these stories! gone!.

Testing: I came onto the forums and read into if there are any ways to find old sim files but unless they haven't been deleted and wiped then there doesn't seem to be a way.

Acceptance: I am really gutted and I don't know if I have quite over come this final stage of the grieving process but maybe a new start isn't all that bad... I'm lying I can't stop hating myself for all that time I have spent being now wasted. At least I have my health (touch wood).

I wrote this post as a friendly lesson and warning to all you fellow simmers make a backup of all your saved files and mods! keep them on a pen drive or somewhere safe. You don't want to end up like me with four years of blood, sweat and tears now down the pan.

If anyone can suggest some good maxis match mod creators I would be so grateful. Have a good weekend everyone. I hope it ends better than mine has.

30 Replies

  • Oh that happened to me about a month or two ago? I was updating my Mac and I needed space to do it. So I backed up everything to the cloud, and not thinking about the Documents folder, where The Sims 4 dwells.
    so I went into play and the game created a all new file, and I lost all my Mods, CC, my 4 years of a Save.

    but I'm almost done recovering 4 years worth of play time... oddly in just 2 months.
  • "Hermitgirl;c-16511272" wrote:
    I like the idea of using a flash drive actually. I've had external hard drives go belly up so I just haven't bothered with that.. figured I'd just start over again .. thanks @Seera1024


    @Hermitgirl Keep in mind flash drives can go belly up just like hard drives. No storage device is immune from going belly up. Which is why you want back ups on multiple drives. Be it multiple flash drives or multiple hard drives.
  • "alimafion;d-940885" wrote:
    Fellow Simmers hold your sims close while I tell you this story of heartbreak, desperation and despair.
    Our tale begins earlier today when I was deleting and transferring the last of the files from my old Mac to my new Mac and turning off iCloud since both computers were linked. I had just put the (seemingly empty) EA folder in the bin on my old Mac and pressed delete and proceeded to wipe old the Mac's hard drive ready for my sister and her husband to pay me the money for it and take it back home with them. "A job well done" I thought to myself. Thinking I'd finally get a chance to go on to my (current) computer and have some more time to start setting up my game for the new seasons expansion pack, I loaded the game in anticipation. I got onto the main menu page and all of a sudden the game started welcoming me to all the game packs and expansion packs I owned "This is odd", I thought to myself. I looked to the left of the screen only to see the big play button but no "load game" option. My heart dropped.

    What.have.I.done.

    Panicking, I quickly exited the game and went into my EA folder, I checked all the places where old files may be lurking, I did full system search of the computer to try and locate the files I desperately sought, the files that contain 4 years worth of story telling, house builds and characters I have created whom I have fallen in love with. Not to mention mods!

    Gone.

    Shock: I felt paralysed my brain was doing that white noise thing that televisions do.

    Denial: This can't be happening, I must be having a nightmare, this isn't real life.

    Anger: F0R F!@£$%^&*()!@£$%^&* SAKE!!!!. WHY AM I SUCH A F!@£$%^&* CLOWN!

    Bargaining: I don't know how you bargain with a computer but I did another full system search and pleaded with it not to have deleted my files forever. It was not looking kindly in my favour tonight.

    Depression: Sobbing into my large cup of tea, it genuinely felt like I had lost someone from my life. The Harpers - Gone! young Robert was going to be a doctor, his parents John and... I've forgotten the mothers name... were going to be so proud and leave him all their cash. He can no longer ruin his faithful Caterina's life and leave her pregnant and penniless, all these stories! gone!.

    Testing: I came onto the forums and read into if there are any ways to find old sim files but unless they haven't been deleted and wiped then there doesn't seem to be a way.

    Acceptance: I am really gutted and I don't know if I have quite over come this final stage of the grieving process but maybe a new start isn't all that bad... I'm lying I can't stop hating myself for all that time I have spent being now wasted. At least I have my health (touch wood).

    I wrote this post as a friendly lesson and warning to all you fellow simmers make a backup of all your saved files and mods! keep them on a pen drive or somewhere safe. You don't want to end up like me with four years of blood, sweat and tears now down the pan.

    If anyone can suggest some good maxis match mod creators I would be so grateful. Have a good weekend everyone. I hope it ends better than mine has.



    Oh no that is really really plum :(

    You'll remake new awesome memories of course, but I can understand how frustrating this must be. They're our little world after all, and it sucks losing something you've spent so much time creating and playing in. Can you can still download some of your stuff from the gallery if you've uploaded things there?

    A real bummer though! Very sorry to hear it. But try having fun creating new stories in a new little world. I'm sure it'll be even better one day :)
  • "Seera1024;c-16511264" wrote:


    Don't rely solely on any one back up method. Keep multiple back ups of anything you would hate to lose. The gallery can be one of them, but sites do go down and EA may one day decide to cull the gallery.

    Have at least one back up that's not on your computer and not permanently attached to your computer. This is to prevent things like theft or bad viruses from making you start over from square one with regards to your saves and your CC/mods. The latter will be more important as Sims 4 gets older and CC and mod sites start going down for good.


    This is very good advice! I hadn't thought about them culling the gallery for older sims. I'm going to be downloading all of mine and saving the files on a flash drive then! Thanks so much for this great post filled with even better advice!
  • ShaddBoi1's avatar
    ShaddBoi1
    Not applicable
    8 years ago
    Sorry to hear! That's really a bummer.

    But maybe a fresh start will be a good thing, what with Seasons coming! Springtime is a time for renewal and growth---maybe it's a great season to kick off a whole new sims saga.
  • I started backing up regularly ever since my laptop's hard drive died on me in 2013. :( Sorry about that.

    If you're looking for good Maxis-match CC, you can look at Sims on the Rope. I have a few pieces and they're great!
  • alimafion's avatar
    alimafion
    Not applicable
    8 years ago


    "SimTrippy;c-16511339" wrote:
    "alimafion;d-940885" wrote:
    Fellow Simmers hold your sims close while I tell you this story of heartbreak, desperation and despair.
    Our tale begins earlier today when I was deleting and transferring the last of the files from my old Mac to my new Mac and turning off iCloud since both computers were linked. I had just put the (seemingly empty) EA folder in the bin on my old Mac and pressed delete and proceeded to wipe old the Mac's hard drive ready for my sister and her husband to pay me the money for it and take it back home with them. "A job well done" I thought to myself. Thinking I'd finally get a chance to go on to my (current) computer and have some more time to start setting up my game for the new seasons expansion pack, I loaded the game in anticipation. I got onto the main menu page and all of a sudden the game started welcoming me to all the game packs and expansion packs I owned "This is odd", I thought to myself. I looked to the left of the screen only to see the big play button but no "load game" option. My heart dropped.

    What.have.I.done.

    Panicking, I quickly exited the game and went into my EA folder, I checked all the places where old files may be lurking, I did full system search of the computer to try and locate the files I desperately sought, the files that contain 4 years worth of story telling, house builds and characters I have created whom I have fallen in love with. Not to mention mods!

    Gone.

    Shock: I felt paralysed my brain was doing that white noise thing that televisions do.

    Denial: This can't be happening, I must be having a nightmare, this isn't real life.

    Anger: F0R F!@£$%^&*()!@£$%^&* SAKE!!!!. WHY AM I SUCH A F!@£$%^&* CLOWN!

    Bargaining: I don't know how you bargain with a computer but I did another full system search and pleaded with it not to have deleted my files forever. It was not looking kindly in my favour tonight.

    Depression: Sobbing into my large cup of tea, it genuinely felt like I had lost someone from my life. The Harpers - Gone! young Robert was going to be a doctor, his parents John and... I've forgotten the mothers name... were going to be so proud and leave him all their cash. He can no longer ruin his faithful Caterina's life and leave her pregnant and penniless, all these stories! gone!.

    Testing: I came onto the forums and read into if there are any ways to find old sim files but unless they haven't been deleted and wiped then there doesn't seem to be a way.

    Acceptance: I am really gutted and I don't know if I have quite over come this final stage of the grieving process but maybe a new start isn't all that bad... I'm lying I can't stop hating myself for all that time I have spent being now wasted. At least I have my health (touch wood).

    I wrote this post as a friendly lesson and warning to all you fellow simmers make a backup of all your saved files and mods! keep them on a pen drive or somewhere safe. You don't want to end up like me with four years of blood, sweat and tears now down the pan.

    If anyone can suggest some good maxis match mod creators I would be so grateful. Have a good weekend everyone. I hope it ends better than mine has.



    Oh no that is really really plum :(

    You'll remake new awesome memories of course, but I can understand how frustrating this must be. They're our little world after all, and it plum losing something you've spent so much time creating and playing in. Can you can still download some of your stuff from the gallery if you've uploaded things there?

    A real bummer though! Very sorry to hear it. But try having fun creating new stories in a new little world. I'm sure it'll be even better one day :)


    I have a one family on the gallery but it was my main sims parents so I’ve tried to recreate him from his parents genetics. I really wish I’d uploaded them all to the gallery but I never thought I’d be so stupid as to delete the EA folder
  • alimafion's avatar
    alimafion
    Not applicable
    8 years ago
    Thanks everyone for your help, advice and kind words! I really appreciate it! <3 <3
  • It absolutely sucks to have that kind of stuff happen. The harddrive on the computer that I'd bought specifically to play the Sims on died on me just over a month after I bought it. The thing was, I'd made backups on a USB a week before it died, but I was missing the birth of a young Sim who was born a vampire, and when I managed to buy a new PC and put all of my files on it, he was born human.
    And about 2 weeks ago, that 2nd PC I bought? It died on me too, but this time my backups were only 3 days instead of a week. Now I can't play the game at all, but I know I won't have lost too much progress.

    When I get a new NEW PC, I'm going to make sure I backup my stuff every 2 days.
    It must have been completely devastating to lose 4 years. I know I was devastated when I lost only a week.
  • alimafion's avatar
    alimafion
    Not applicable
    8 years ago
    "afai1261;c-16512584" wrote:
    It absolutely plum to have that kind of stuff happen. The harddrive on the computer that I'd bought specifically to play the Sims on died on me just over a month after I bought it. The thing was, I'd made backups on a USB a week before it died, but I was missing the birth of a young Sim who was born a vampire, and when I managed to buy a new PC and put all of my files on it, he was born human.
    And about 2 weeks ago, that 2nd PC I bought? It died on me too, but this time my backups were only 3 days instead of a week. Now I can't play the game at all, but I know I won't have lost too much progress.

    When I get a new NEW PC, I'm going to make sure I backup my stuff every 2 days.
    It must have been completely devastating to lose 4 years. I know I was devastated when I lost only a week.


    It serves me right for not backing up tbh. I feel your pain! You sound like you’ve been having a worse time than me! I hope you manage to get everything sorted out!

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