Reinstalling Windows - Saving MO

[Sneaksmile]

Hello! 

I have to reinstall windows, and this is the first time I'm going to do it since using Mod Organizer.

Please someone tell me exactly which folders I should keep from the C drive so that the configuration and mods are not lost, and its good operation continues when copying and pasting the folders (I guess) after reinstalling windows. 

If is not as simple as I think. Can someone tell me please if it's that simple or is not that simple?  

I only use MO to handle Skyrim. I don't use it for any other games.

Thanks.  

Edited June 22, 2022 by Sneaksmile

[Just Don't]

Keep the downloads, mods, profiles, overwrite (in case it has any files) folders from MO. To know where these are you can go to MO Settings ->Paths. Take note of the location of these folders. If you have a portable instance all the subfolders should be wherever your MO is installed, if that's the case you can copy/move your entire MO install to somewhere for safekeep.

 

On top of that I guess you'd want to grab your saves (Documents\My Games\Skyrim\).

 

You can also copy all the files from your Skyrim install except the \Data folder. Once you reinstall your SO, Steam and everything else reinstall Skyrim and copy your old Skyrim files. By doing this you automatically get all the dll and config files (SKSE, ENB, Reshade, plugin loaders, 3d audio, etc.) if you also need to reinstall the game/Steam. Or copy the entire Skyrim (data included) if you don't need to worry about backup sizes.

 

After you're done with your SO, Steam, game and relocate the MO folders, you can start MO. If you keep things in the exact same location it should work as it is. If you moved anything (Steam/the game, MO itself, the individual subfolder like downloads, profiles, mods, etc.) you need to change these in the same "Paths" tab. Simply redirect all these folders to the new location and you can keep using that same MO installation.

Edited June 23, 2022 by Just Don't

[Grey Cloud]

I think @worik may have instructions on one of her blogs.

[ScroodPooch]

For each game managed, you click on the Settings button in MO (Wrench and Screwdriver)

Then click on your Paths tab in that popup window. There will be several referenced directories, Each of those folders and their contents should be backed up and preserved. Preferably on a thumb drive or some external place off the PC.

 

 

 

 

Also.

 

In your Documents folder should be a folder that says My Games. My Games folder isn't specific to MO, but the game itself.  Inside that folder will be your Skyrim / SSE / FO4 folder(s) etc. Make backups of those folders as well. These are where your game saves are as well as other game configuration settings.

 

 

[RedMonika]

FYI... when you reinstall Windows try to create another partition or get another drive and use that for your game. You can store everything on another partition. Doing this allows you to reinstall without worrying about your data. You can even do this for your Windows profile too.

[Imperfection]

There is also instance data if you have more than one MO2 instance, stored in your user profile

 

C:\Users\USERNAME\AppData\Local\ModOrganizer\

[Dorabella]

On 6/23/2022 at 1:49 AM, Sneaksmile said:

If is not as simple as I think. Can someone tell me please if it's that simple or is not that simple?  

Skyrim + New OS + New SSD CTD Startup . How can i solved

[daboy18]

Im in same boat now.. i had to reinstall windows because my memory was defect.. now i have admin rights issues with almost every file... sad part is i cant fix is by simply giving the rights.. apperently a windows error so best is to reinstall everything on my drive again.... i somehow ended up with DLL Plugings not being able to be opened and now i decided to reinstall mo2... 

 

Did urs work now?

 

wish me luck... 🥲

[Qviddhartha]

Hey, you stole the story of my past week!  RAM crash, lost everything Windows was tracking.  Fortunately I had Skyrim and other valuable stuff on another drive.

 

After reinstalling Windows, Skyrim would CTD on start without any error messages.  The fix was to install DirectX from Microsoft.

 

CK was also misbehaving, the fix was to run it as Administrator and visiting the Scene and Dialogue Views tabs on some random quest.

 

[Qviddhartha]

Almost forget... CK would not compile some scripts.  Had to force "English US" data formats (for dates, floating point numbers) in the "Regional" settings.

 

PS: I *hate* US date format!

Edited October 20, 2024 by pfB6cs