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@Cantiras When I uninstalled origin and the sims the first time, I had to delete everything from the electronic arts folder. I kept my mods just in case, I tried to just put the mods folder inside my sims 4 folder in origin but they didn't show up. I tried to move my documents file to my new hard drive (I now have two hard drives). I still all my mods but they won't show up even when I put them in my new sims folder. What I was trying to say was, do I need to have this; Documents > Electronic Arts > The Sims 4? If so, how do I move my documents folder to my new drive?
@simsss4gamerrr Using established convention, I will refer to your preexisting drive as C: and your new drive as D:. It's possible your drives have different letter assignments than that, but I will use these letters for the sake of example.
Your Documents folder should be located at C:\Users\<yourwindowsusername>\Documents. The Sims 4 settings folder should be located at C:\Users\<yourwindowsusername>\Documents\Electronic Arts\The Sims 4. Anything removed from C:\Users\<yourwindowsusername>\Documents\Electronic Arts\The Sims 4 when you uninstalled The Sims 4 may be lost if you didn't make a copy of it before uninstalling the game.
My understanding is that after uninstalling The Sims 4 and Origin, you reinstalled both of these programs to your D: drive (i.e. the new drive). However, C:\Users\<yourwindowsusername>\Documents\Electronic Arts\The Sims 4 is still the location the game will use for mods and saved games; that doesn't change unless you change the storage location of the Documents directory. The Documents directory doesn't have to be on the same drive as the Origin client and The Sims 4.
Unless you are terribly low on available space on your older drive, I would leave the Documents directory on your older drive, as moving it can potentially disrupt other things, although such issues are usually minor. Since you still have copies of the previous mods you were using, they should work if you add them back to C:\Users\<yourwindowsusername>\Documents\Electronic Arts\The Sims 4\Mods.
If you still have your old saves, they should work if you add them back to C:\Users\<yourwindowsusername>\Documents\Electronic Arts\The Sims 4\saves. If you lost them when you uninstalled the game, you could try right-clicking the C:\Users\<yourwindowsusername>\Documents\Electronic Arts\The Sims 4\saves folder, selecting Properties from the context menu, then in the Properties window, selecting the Previous Versions tab to see if there is anything listed there that can be restored. If not, you could try Windows' System Restore tool to restore your system to a point before you uninstalled The Sims 4 (if you have a system restore point that dates that far back) and see if you can recover your save files, however, you would then have to uninstall The Sims 4 from your C: drive (i.e. the old drive) again. There are also third-party tools that can be used to try to recover lost files.
If you really want to change the storage location of the Documents directory to your new drive, here are instructions.
- 5 years ago
Thank you so much for your time! This helped a lot, my final question is when I move my documents to my new drive, what if it still doesn't work? Will I just have to lay without mods?
- Cantiras5 years agoHero (Retired)
@simsss4gamerrr If everything is done correctly, it should work. You might possibly encounter some headaches with other programs since this isn't a fresh Windows installation and you already have some existing programs which might have registered the Documents storage location as being on your old drive, but if you encounter that, it should be a minor affair to fix.
If you find it doesn't work after changing the storage location for Documents (as per the instructions), before giving up, trying reinstalling The Sim 4 (if you do that, make sure to save your mods and savegames before uninstalling The Sims 4). That being said, I won't guarantee you will meet with success; all you do is give it your best effort.
- 5 years ago
@Cantiras This makes much more sense, thank you so much for your help!
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