Transferring to a new PC

[raptor4d4]

I plan to get a new gaming PC in a couple weeks.  Hoping it will run Skyrim better than before as well as a slew of new games my current one can't handle.  But I want to transfer a bunch of stuff over.

 

I don't want to lose my current saves.  I also want to keep all my Mod Organizer profiles and all the mods associated with them.  I need some advice on transferring things over.

 

I found a thread on another website where someone claimed that if you just copied your Skyrim folder and your Mod Organizer folder, all your settings and the mods you uploaded will be in place?  I'll need to reinstall SKSE, FNIS and LOOT of course and remap Mod Organizer for those but other than that a simple copy and paste would do?  Is this accurate?

 

Also my current gaming PC uses Windows 7 but this new one will likely use Windows 10.  Any advice or warnings about how well Windows 10 will work with these games and programs? 

 

Thanks. 

[Guest]

saves are at documents>my games>skyrim>saves

[Danni17]

First of all. Sorry for my bad english: windows 10 is very troublesome with all games (worst if pirate), i'm not sure about copying all the game folder will work but you could keep that hard drive and use it as an external drive.

 

Other option would be install on the new pc skyrim again with dlcs etc, and then copy your old Tes5 Folder and replace the new one. this is all about windows registry creating some paths when you install a game, sometimes this paths are needed in the regedit for a game to properly work.

[Comrade Isbariya]

It is perfectly possible to copy all your files over. I do the same because reinstalling everything is a pain in the... you know what...

 

To keep everything you have right now, make sure that you follow these steps carefully.

 

1. Copy both, you Skyrim and you MO folder, and save them on an external drive or wherever you want them. Better don't mess around with Winrar or 7zip to reduce filesize, if something goes wrong while compressing, the faulty file is lost for good.

2. Copy the folder contained in: users\yourname\documents\my games\, it contains all your savegames, your Skyrim.ini and Skyrimprefs.ini and whatever else.

3. and most important for your settings, load order and stuff: Go to folder options, show hidden folders, which should now uncover the hidden 'Appdata' folder in your users\yourname folder. check the contained folders (should be local, roaming and another one) for anything related to Skyrim or MO (they should be in 'local' but you never know) copy these folders too, and write down their path if you can't remember them anymore later.

4. Save all that stuff alongside your backed up game folder.

5. Get a new PC, install windows and all updates and all the other stuff you may need.

If you're using a DVD version of Skyrim, you will have to install the base game first, and then copy your folders over the fresh installation.

If you are using steam, you will have to copy your backed up folders to their default places. (don't forget to show hidden folders for the Appdata stuff!), then click 'install' in steam, because the game needs to be verified, else it won't start at all. Installation shouldn't take long, though. About 12 minutes, depending on your internet connection. After steam is done, just copy your backed up steam game folder over it again, to make sure steam didn't overwrite anything important while getting the files to integrate Skyrim into your system. 

You can, off course let steam download everything forst, and then copy your backup over it, but the way described above saves you a lot of download time. 

If they don't go there automatically, you can open your Skyrim folder and create shortcuts for your SKSEloader and FNIS if you're using it and want them on your desktop or startmenu and put them there manually. 

6. IMPORTANT! If your previous PC has been a laptop, or if you are getting a new graphics card that allows a higher resolution than your old one, and if you are NOT using an ENB, you will have to open your Skyrimprefs.ini before you start Skyrim, and adjust the values for your new screen resolution and graphics card manually, as it is fairly possible that Skyrim will NOT start with your old settings! If you are using an ENB, the value for your graphics controller will stay ENB anyway. 

If you're not using an ENB and don't know what you have to put there for your graphics devices name: move your current Skyrimprefs.ini out of your users\yourname\documents\my games\Skyrim folder and start the game, it should automatically detect your graphics card and screen resolution. Close the game again, have a look at the freshly created Skyrimprefs.ini and copy the values for screen resolution and graphics controller over to your old one, move it back into the folder, click yes to overwrite it, and start Skyrim again. You should be fine and everything should work like it did on your old PC.

 

Edit: if you copied everything mentioned, you should not need to reinstall either SKSE, nor its plugins, nor FNIS or if you're using one, your ENB. Everything should be in place. The only thing you will have to reinstall in any case is LOOT, as it has its own entry in your programs folder and is not stored alongside Skyrim or MO. MO should also work fine if you didn't forget the stuff contained in the hidden Appdata folder. 

 

Edit2: As I am not using MO, and don't know if you have to install it like you would have to install NMM, I recommend that you do a clean install of MO BEFORE you follow the guide provided, just to make sure that you have all the files if it integrates itself into your Windows' registry, and then go on copying everything over the new installation.

[RW311]

^ I was about to type all that too, so do that.

 

I upgraded to 10 last year and my perfectly stable mod load was crashing all the time, I installed 7 in dual boot and can play skyrim with no problems again. 10 sucks for skyrim, probably for many other games that use dx9.

[Comrade Isbariya]

Been using WIn10 for a year now, Skyrim worked fine with all the Crash Fixes and Memory Allocation stuff and whatsoever, only that the limitation of 4096MB of vRam per application sucked. It gave me crashes during Racemenu, stating that I'm running out of vRam although I was using the precache killer.

 

I installed Windows 7 again on my second drive, as a dual boot too, and copied all my Skyrim stuff over, changed the vRamsize allowed by Windows 7 in my enblocal.ini accordingly. (Win7 offers me 7904MB of vRamsize! Almost double the amount than Win10!) And well what should I say? Racemenu crashes are gone for good, and the game itself runs even smoother. (although I have to cap framerate on both versions of Windows to 58 to prevent havoc) 

[Uncle64]

It is even more simple then Comrade Isbariya did write.

 

Steam have made one nice guide how to move them. It is the same if you want to move them to one another PC or Disk.

You find it here.

https://support.steampowered.com/kb_article.php?ref=7418-YUBN-8129&l

One warning, if you are planning to move all your games, IT will take some serious time.

Not sure if you can move games from Ubisoft and other the same way. So make sure that you have all installation files.

 

Almost all games do put their saves in C:\users\your name\My save or c:\users\your name\documents\My games. c:\users\your name\saved games.

 

 

You can actually copy the whole folder c:\users\ to one another disk. There will be some files you cant copy, ignore them.

 

You can copy MO the same way, whit all the files you have there.

You will will need to reinstall MO on top of your files so the reg settings will be correct and your profiles will be there.

 

Since you are planning to move them to one new PC I suggest you make sure that your new PC is up and running before you do this since you must connect them by using LAN or cable.

I think I have done this 10 times.

Truly easy. But it will take some serious time. Make sure you have coffee, beer, and some snacks.

 

W10 can be little tricky, but there are one user made guide over at Steam you can check out. Really god one.

[raptor4d4]

^ I was about to type all that too, so do that.

 

I upgraded to 10 last year and my perfectly stable mod load was crashing all the time, I installed 7 in dual boot and can play skyrim with no problems again. 10 sucks for skyrim, probably for many other games that use dx9.

 

 

Been using WIn10 for a year now, Skyrim worked fine with all the Crash Fixes and Memory Allocation stuff and whatsoever, only that the limitation of 4096MB of vRam per application sucked. It gave me crashes during Racemenu, stating that I'm running out of vRam although I was using the precache killer.

 

I installed Windows 7 again on my second drive, as a dual boot too, and copied all my Skyrim stuff over, changed the vRamsize allowed by Windows 7 in my enblocal.ini accordingly. (Win7 offers me 7904MB of vRamsize! Almost double the amount than Win10!) And well what should I say? Racemenu crashes are gone for good, and the game itself runs even smoother. (although I have to cap framerate on both versions of Windows to 58 to prevent havoc) 

Thanks for all the advice and that list of instructions.  However your "dual boot" advice was a bit too technical for me and I'm not sure what you mean.  How can I have two versions of Windows running at once?  Will I have to buy Windows 7 all over again? 

[RW311]

Dual boot is very simple, if you want instructions just ask here or find guides in google search. It does not require any technical knowledge.

 

Probably you have to buy win7 again, but that depends on the license you have with the current version. If you have a full license then I believe you can use it on multiple computers but I really don't know for certain. Chances are if the pc you bought had win7 installed it was an OEM version and can only be installed on one pc, whether or not you can transfer the license I just don't know. You can always install win7 and if it won't activate with the key you have then you still have time to use it, I believe it is one month before it will require a key.

[Comrade Isbariya]

The thing with Windows 7 is: If you upgraded your WIn7 to Windows 10, your Windows 7 license is merged with your new Windows 10 license. This theoretically forbids you to use your copy of Windows 7 as long as you are using Windows 10.

I say theoretically, because practically you can still use your copy of Windows 7. That's what I am doing right now, although I'm using WIndows 10 too. 

 

According to the new license agreement of Windows 10, it is considered illegal, but well, as if Microsoft would ever do anything about that. They never did something about the millions of pirated Windows 7's, all the pirated ones even got Win10 for free, as most of the pirated ones were Windows 7 Ultimate, all their users got Windows 10 PRO for free... So well...

 

Just for the protocol: IT IS ILLEGAL AND I AM NOT ACTIVELY ADVISING YOU TO DO THAT!

I'm not keeping you from doing so either

 

Dual boot means, that you will have 2 versions of Windows on your PC, so that you choose which one to load when your PC boots. 

 

If you want to set up a dual boot, you'll have to install the first Windows the way you'd usually do it, off course. Either you choose to install both versions of Windows on one HDD, or you choose to work with 2 different HDDs if you have 2 of them in your PC. 

 

If you only have one HDD, you will have to create a second partition huge enough for Windows (~20GB) and the programs/games you want to install to that partition. You can either assign partitions while installing Windows no.1, or you can do it later, from your first installed Windows through it's datadrives management. (I really don't know the English word Windows would be using xD) 

 

Anyway, if you have a partition that is huge enough it is almost the same as if you had a second HDD in your PC, so from then on it's the same to do anyway. 

 

So if your first WIndows is up to date, running and all that stuff, throw in the DVD/USB flash drive with your second Windows installation files on it. (I am using the way where you would install the second Windows through your first Windows, so you don't have to mess around with boot order and whatnot.) 

Start setup, and follow it, just make sure that you choose a full installation, and not an upgrade, follow setup until it asks you where you want to install. You will NOT be able to assign a new partition from here, this is ONLY possible if you are not installing through an existing Windows, but that's why I told you to create the partition prior to it! If you're using 2HDDs, you're fine, just choose the second one, or the partition you previously assigned. 

 

Install Windows as you usually would, let it reboot several times, download all the updates and stuff and better get a coffey and some snack, as Windows 7 can take AGES...  

 

If you followed that little guide, just go to the directory where you installed your second Windows, there should be an empty folder called Windows.old - delete it. This is what happens if you install a copy of Windows through another one, as the wizard assumes that it installs Windows over the other Windows, although you changed the installation directory, and that is why the folder is empty, usually it would rename your old Windows version. Anyway, you can get rid of that one. But you don't have to, it's empty anyway.  

 

Install your games and whatever you need on your second Windows and be fine.  

 

Whenever you start/reboot your PC now, you will be asked which Windows you'd like to start. 

 

So it's actually pretty easy.