Purging Vortex skyrimse folder contents question (reinstalling skyrim effort)

[anjenthedog]

The saga continues.... cleaning up the mess before reinstallation.

 

I have a shitton of files left over from my old Skyrim SE installation in vortex's Users/.../appdata/roaming/vortex/skyrimse/ folder, the worst offender being its /mods/ subfolder

 

Specifically, 144G of expanded mod folders. 

 

Short background story. Steam fucked up badly, steam and vortex support fucked up after the fact, and the old installation is as dead as a door knob, and now all my old Skyrim SE 'active' game content (aside from the Vortex leftovers I'm here about right now) from the /Program Files (x86)/Steam/steamapps/ folder has been moved to an external archive drive.

 

So this is all part of reinstalling Skyrim, effectively "from scratch".

 

Anyway. Back to the 144G of useless expanded mod folders on my 500G root drive ... Opening Vortex doesn't show my old game at all. Which makes sense, (I ~think~ ) since the contents /steamapps/ folder has been removed from the root drive to an archive drive, including all /steamapps/ vortex identifiers (ie various "appmanifest" files and so forth)  that would note the game's presence in vortex. As such, I can't even manage the files from vortex, since it doesn't recognize their existence

Already saved a copy of the files from the Users/.../appdata/roaming/vortex/skyrimse/profiles/ subfolder (contains last deployed: skyrim.ini, skryimprefs.ini, loadorder.txt, plugins.txt, and skyrimcustom.ini, for informational purposes), and have all source (ie compressed) mod files from the expanded /mods/ subfolder saved "off board"

 

Am I right in thinking the answer is as simple as deleting the /skyrimse/ folder (ie the one with the expanded mod folders)?

 

Is there some gotcha I'm overlooking?

 

thanks

 

Edited February 2, 2025 by anjenthedog
clarification

[traison]

I'm a bit unclear about whether you actually want to delete your previous mods and start over, or if you *think* you need to delete them because Vortex can't find the Skyrim install anymore.

 

Moving the Steam Skyrim install:

1. Put your Skyrim game files back where you found them.
2. Open Steam -> Settings.
3. Create a new library on your external drive.
4. Use the Settings dialog to relocate Skyrim's game files to the new library.

After this I imagine Vortex would be able to find your game and mod files again. If you want to relocate those as well, there's probably a configuration option in Vortex for that.

[anjenthedog]

2 hours ago, traison said:

I'm a bit unclear about whether you actually want to delete your previous mods and start over, or if you *think* you need to delete them because Vortex can't find the Skyrim install anymore.

 

Moving the Steam Skyrim install:

1. Put your Skyrim game files back where you found them.
2. Open Steam -> Settings.
3. Create a new library on your external drive.
4. Use the Settings dialog to relocate Skyrim's game files to the new library.

After this I imagine Vortex would be able to find your game and mod files again. If you want to relocate those as well, there's probably a configuration option in Vortex for that.

 

Thanks for the reply

 

I'm starting over.  (Starting with AE, might downgrade although idk yet on that score but will after the initial installation efforts and modding/playing-a-little)

 

I already have copies of all previously downloaded mods ( ie "modnam".7z/zip ) archived on another drive. So any local installs that I need to do (LL mods for instance), or want to do (to save download time) can be accomplished on this pc without any need for re-download (unless I want them linked to their nexus pages and or they need some update, reuqiring a new download)

 

Vortex is already configured to use the archive drive as its "download" location, so its direct download files are accounted for (not including ones I downloaded/archived manually and installed locally, which are also archived but in a  separate set of folders)

 

However, when mods are installed, Vortex ALSO produces and stores (stages) expanded copies of each downloaded and installed mod, locally, along with its other .../Vortex/skyrimse/ resources (the ini files I noted, Plus a few other small, vortex produced, game-specific tidbits in a couple more folders.

 

I'm talking about purging the 144 gig of expanded (unzipped) "staging" mod folders that vortex has in the root drive directory I noted in the original post. Not the  mod.7z/mod.zip files I donwloaded back whenever. Again, those  are stored elsewhere if I need want them during game installation... 

Edited February 2, 2025 by anjenthedog
details

[belegost]

7 hours ago, anjenthedog said:

Am I right in thinking the answer is as simple as deleting the /skyrimse/ folder

Yes. This is the default path for Vortex staging folder. If you're starting from scratch just get rid of it.

 

Also, for any game managed by Vortex in the future, change it something simpler. Having it buried in AppData for some reason by default is one thing that irks me about it. I always change it to my default game folder e.g. C:\GAMES\VORTEX for every single game I have Vortex manage. I hate having to dig into several layers of folders just to browse shit. Old habit form DOS days when you had to manually type stuff to get to where you needed.

Not to mention what 30 years of heavy mouse usage can do with your wrists. I hate mice and use key shortcuts in any program that has them. I miss trackballs in this age of optical mouse.

Edited February 3, 2025 by belegost

[alex77r4]

I not know how are you using Vortex but, after 3 years installing mods for Skyrim, my roaming folder only have 650 Mb.

Take a look to your Vortex configuration and verify the destination folder for Mods and Downloads.

Seems that your Downloads folder is correctly set to another drive but your Mods folder also must be outside main C drive:

Spoiler

 

If you have it in "Users/.../appdata/roaming/vortex/skyrimse/" and you have lost your actual installation and go to start from scratch you can delete that 144 Gb without any problem because Vortex can't recover it. You must install again all the mods from the download folder and strongly recommend put your mods folder outside main C drive.

Edited February 3, 2025 by alex77r4

[belegost]

23 minutes ago, alex77r4 said:

only have 650 Mb.

You don't seem to have many mods then.

 

Mine is 100 GB and I have very moderate setup that I cut down from 150GB recently. Dint Hair pack alone is 7GB, Devious Devices: 3 GB, Botox: 2GB, not to mention several dozen or so clothing mods in range of 200-800MB each. And don't get me started on texture replacers and non-Botox NPC overhauls.

Edited February 3, 2025 by belegost

[alex77r4]

3 hours ago, belegost said:

You don't seem to have many mods then.

 

Mine is 100 GB and I have very moderate setup that I cut down from 150GB recently. Dint Hair pack alone is 7GB, Devious Devices: 3 GB, Botox: 2GB, not to mention several dozen or so clothing mods in range of 200-800MB each. And don't get me started on texture replacers and non-Botox NPC overhauls.

 

Then, you, as anjenthedog, must have something miss configured.

 

I not have any problem in show my configuration, as you can see in my previous screenshot, because i have a full sexlab installation with hundreds and hundreds of mods, some of them installed 3 years ago, and my Vortex folder inside appdata have now 663 Mb:

Spoiler

 

As you can see is a screenshot of my explorer and show real info. My 61.7 Gb of mod mods are in G:\Vortex Mods\skyrimse:

Spoiler

 

My installation is not big in size because, first, i not use that gigantic mods with generated voices, and seconds, my G drive is and ancient Seagate 1Tb at 7200 rpm, yes, is physical, buts works very well and my game only need about 30 seconds to show the Main Menu having now 373 mods and 284 plugins:

Spoiler

 

 

Additionally, i have a lot of profiles because i make a lot of test with different configurations:

Spoiler

 

Edited February 3, 2025 by alex77r4

[belegost]

3 hours ago, alex77r4 said:

(...)

Oh nice, we're in a dick measuring contest now.

 

Your staging folder is 61.7GB then and is located in G:\ drive. OP clearly said theirs was in AppData, as per Vortex default so it's logical it was 144GB, mine is in another location and had 100GB. Nothing wrong here,  just different configuration.

What you're pointing is internal Vortex data, not mods, you have those two mixed up.

Edited February 3, 2025 by belegost

[alex77r4]

 

24 minutes ago, belegost said:

Oh nice, we're in a dick measuring contest now.

 

This is nothing about that... This is about a correct Vortex configuration...

 

But as you said:

8 hours ago, belegost said:

You don't seem to have many mods then.

I reply showing my installation of 61.7 GB with 373 mods and 284 plugins while my Vortex folder in appdata have only 663 MB.

[belegost]

7 minutes ago, alex77r4 said:

Vortex folder in appdata have only 663 MB.

My Vortex AppData is only 5MB. If anything, it seems like your AppData is excessive.

 

My dick is smaller than yours (if I had one), therefore I win.

 

You want to continue in this line of thinking?

Edited February 3, 2025 by belegost

[anjenthedog]

@alex77r4 my old installation had upwards of 700 active mods (just shy but close enough). 1.4G is the size of the expanded (ie uncompressed) modfile folders  located in the vortex staging folder.

 

That is, the Vortex staging folder located in the Users/.../appdata/roaming/vortex/skyrimse/mods/ , and which is separate from the Vortex downloads folder that I'd already reconfigured to point to another drive long prior.

Edited February 3, 2025 by anjenthedog

[anjenthedog]

18 hours ago, belegost said:

Yes. This is the default path for Vortex staging folder. If you're starting from scratch just get rid of it.

 

Also, for any game managed by Vortex in the future, change it something simpler. Having it buried in AppData for some reason by default is one thing that irks me about it. I always change it to my default game folder e.g. C:\GAMES\VORTEX for every single game I have Vortex manage. I hate having to dig into several layers of folders just to browse shit. Old habit form DOS days when you had to manually type stuff to get to where you needed.

Not to mention what 30 years of heavy mouse usage can do with your wrists. I hate mice and use key shortcuts in any program that has them. I miss trackballs in this age of optical mouse.

thanks for the confirmation and advise.

 

I agree with your comments about having to tunnel in. It's quite annoying, to say the least, but I've kinda made peace with it and try to "work within the system" whenever I can, just to reduce the frustration level from fighting it.

 

sidenote: I had issues with mice for a while,  back when I used a desk and chair that didn't sit at a correct height for my frame. Even had carpal tunnel from it (circa 2006-2007). Might have also had something to do with the less than spectacular "$2" mouse that was provided to me by the company I was working from at the time, and the crappy hand-me-down chair and desk they provided. 

 

Irony of ironies, I left6 the job with spinal injuries (workplace assault) but my carpal tunnel got better after I left...and I probably use a mouse more now than I did when I worked there.

Edited February 3, 2025 by anjenthedog
more stuffs

[belegost]

I use Total Commander as a routine way to browse files since forever. Before Windows I used Norton. Totally keyboard-oriented interface, no mouse needed for anything. Fuck you, Explorer.

[anjenthedog]

I use my keyboard, but not nearly as much as the old DOS days. at least not for navigating the OS, anyway. (for skyrim, of course, since all menu navigation, player navigation, and console commands require it)

 

I developed a bit of a post-assault dyslexia that requires me to go back multiple times on things I type, because I routinely put letters in the wrong order, and it becomes incredibly tedious for me, as well as very frustrating, to look back at a sentence (or worse "a" or multiple paragraphs) and realize I have to edit most of the words to fix them

 

(had to fix about 75% of the words I wrote above). And no, spell check doesn't help all that much, since it usually coughs up suggestions that aren't even close to the words I typed

Edited February 4, 2025 by anjenthedog