Hi chaps!

Not a great day....

My game crashed this morning while in the CK. I went to walk the dog and when I got back started up the game only to see I have zero horses in the CK. Totally empty!! and all the groups I'd set up are all gone.

Any ideas WTF has happened? Can anything be salvaged?

Steve

Actually, now I think about it. This happened while in the game! I was just exporting a 2yo I had renamed, my screen froze and the game crashed.

Look in your documents\so7\saves folder and you would normally see two files like the ones below. They will have your email not mine in the name.
Not my real email address by the way.

"hdb_jimsinternet@gmail.com.db"
"hdb_jimsinternet@gmail.com.bak"

The one ending in "db" is the main database for exported horses, the "bak" version is the backup database

If you can see the "bak" version, change the "bak" to "db"

This backup version may not have all your exports but should have most of them.

If you can't see the "bak" version then you have lost all exports unless you have made backups to another folder.


NOTE:
It is important to always make backups of all your saves and the two files above. Best if you do it to a usb stick.


Jim

Thank Jim

I tried what you suggested but it didn't seem to work.... Probably because I gave up hope after posting and played another two seasons? I'm guessing that has now saved the new exported horses over the old backup, so it's lost forever

Never mind, I still have my game file intact, so I'll just have to slowly build it back. Could be a blessing in disguise!

So how often do you save the folder? I'm assuming if I just save the whole folder to a back up USB that will cover it? Does this folder also work if the entire game is somehow lost?

Thanks!
Steve

I make two backups.

One backup at the start of every season to a folder on my hard drive. Each season is in a sub-folder so if I need go back to any season and re-export a horse I can do so.

The other backup I am slightly lazy with, probably back up the folder I created above every 2 or 3 seasons to a usb drive.

Folder looks like this




I back up my saves individually, so I have a folder for the saved game in slot 1, another folder for slot 2 etc.. The picture above is for my save in slot 7. I have similar folders for all the slots.

There are 10 files associated with every save, some are backups but I copy all 10 files to the yearly folders above.

If you just backup the complete documents\saves folder you are copying files you don't need to copy, especially if you have an fbr folder. It is full of race files and takes ages to copy.

The two files I mentioned in the previous post that hold my exports are backed up each season to a separate folder. This folder only has the two files, I don't do yearly with these files.

If the entire game is lost you just copy the most recent 10 file backup to your saves folder.

If my current save year is 2052 and I want to re-export a horse from 2040, I just copy the 2040 files back to the main saves folder, do what I have to do and then copy the 2052 files back to the main saves folder.


Lastly, you said you tried renaming the "bak" file and it didn't work. Just out of curiosity, check the date associated with the "bak" file to see if it is before you had problems. If the date is older, make a copy of the two files, delete the file ending in "db" and change the "bak" to "db".


If you have any questions about any of this, get back to me.

Jim