Duel Skyrim Install?

[Yawgnor]

Is there a way to install two instances of Skyrim on the same computer?

 

To clarify; To have one install for non-buggy playing, and one for testing mods.

 

After finally getting my game to the way I like it, I fear testing out new and interesting mods for fear of breaking my game to the point of having to reinstall and remod, which takes quite a bit of time.

[srayesmanll]

Not sure if that's entirely possible, but there are some alternatives. You should be able to archive the data folder of your "clean" setup (7zip/rar/whatever) and also archive your saves related to that clean setup, then create your playground setup. Whenever you want to go back and play your clean setup, archive your playground data and all saves associated to it, then unpack your "clean" data and saves, and continue on. There are also some save managers and mod managers which do similar things (this is a search I did in the Utilities category on Nexus, looking for the description containing "mod" - [EDIT]search link didn't go where I expected, so took it out. Just do an advanced search, set the category in the search to Utilities, for description containing "mod").[/EDIT]

[Yawgnor]

That's actually what I'm doing now when the urge to experiment becomes too great. Thing is it takes about a half hour to zip my game up, and about the same to unzip. Add in that I need to do the same with the 'test' game, that means 2 hours of down-time* waiting. : (

 

*Time my wife insists I use to do something else (e.g. take out the trash, help with house work, talk to her...)

 

On a side-note, can you zip one folder while at the same time unzipping another?

[srayesmanll]

On a side-note' date=' can you zip one folder while at the same time unzipping another?

[/quote']

 

Theoretically, yes. Also, 7zip has an option to pack/unpack in the background. But frankly you don't even really NEED to 7zip immediately. If you have the hard drive space on your game drive, moving the folders should actually be very fast. If you are copying files (on the same drive or to a different drive) it adds time, but on the same drive, the move is instantaneous. So create 2 folders on the same drive, one for the clean data and saves, and one for the playground. Move the clean data and saves to that folder (again, should be fairly quick). Once moved, start the archive (7zip) process and tell it do it in the background. While it's archiving, move the playground data and saves from the playground folder to the proper places to play the game. When you are done with the playground, move the data and saves back to the playground folder you created, start the archive of the playground folder, and tell it to archive in the background, then move the clean data/saves to the proper places and begin playing. Shouldn't actually be that time consuming if you are moving (not copying and not moving across drives). Again, this should work if you have the space on your game drive. The archives are there strictly as a failsafe if somehow the data/save folders get messed up during a move.

[Yawgnor]

Now why didn't I think of doing it that way? It works "slicker than owl snot on a door knob".

 

: D

[Duoleb The Chosen]

well ive tried to move my other skyrim to the D disk, but well, the game isn't working anymore, even the beth intro doesnt show up well automatic CTD

[Veta]

try install the game from steam then move the directory to another folder once you have done that go to your library right click on skyrim, click on properties , local files .verify integrity of game cache ,if it works just wait for steam to re-download the game

[Yawgnor]

For any who are trying to do the same thing as I for testing mods, make sure when you swap Data and Save folders that you swap the two NMM folders as well (Install Info and Mods if that's the manager you're using). Makes it a bit easier to test, and change, if you know what's in your current game.

[srayesmanll]

For any who are trying to do the same thing as I for testing mods' date=' make sure when you swap Data and Save folders that you swap the two NMM folders as well (Install Info and Mods if that's the manager you're using). Makes it a bit easier to test, and change, if you know what's in your current game.

[/quote']

 

Nice catch. Forgot about those 2 folders .

[kevlar69]

1. Download Steam Mover & install. http://www.traynier.com/software/steammover

2. Select a new location to move your skyrim install, but tell it to 'I want to run the commands myself'

3. Note the commands down.

4. Copy your entire skyrim directory to a new location

5. Rename your skyrim directory - skyrimAlt or whatever.

6. Use command noted in 3 to create a new 'junction point' to whichever skyrim directory you want to use.

 

You can have as many installations as you like, pristine, test, play.

When you want to change back and forth between installations, just remove and change the junction point. You can script it in a bat file if you like to also do a similar thing with saved game locations.

 

I have done this and have multiple installations, but have *not* tested it with the mod managers yet. It messed up my Wrye Bash mod. list and I had to redo it, so make sure you backup ALL mod manager related stuff prior to running them with a alternate install.

[lampuiho]

Is there a way to install two instances of Skyrim on the same computer?

 

To clarify; To have one install for non-buggy playing' date=' and one for testing mods.

 

After finally getting my game to the way I like it, I fear testing out new and interesting mods for fear of breaking my game to the point of having to reinstall and remod, which takes quite a bit of time.

[/quote']

Just use mod organizer and have different profiles