1) Read carefully.
First, you need to install xliveless . Simply put the xlive.dll in the game directory. Now, go to any of these locations, depending on what Operating System you have, and take your the save game from here, since they won't work anymore if they're located here since you have xliveless installed (change the system driver letters accordingly):
Windows XP SP3: C:\Documents and Settings\<username>\Local Settings\Application Data\Rockstar Games\GTA IV\savegames
Windows Vista: C:\Users\<username>\AppData\Local\Rockstar Games\GTA IV\savegames
Windows 7: C:\Users\<username>\AppData\Local\Rockstar Games\GTA IV\savegames
Now, to place the savegames in the proper directory, you can go by one of the following two procedures:
a) Create the following folder structure in the "My Documents" folder manually (Rockstar Games\GTA IV\savegames)
b) Simply start GTAIV, create a new game from the menu and save the game taking the first opportunity. Now you can look for the folder in "My Documents" and drop any savegames you have there.
2) GTA IV uses Games for Windows Live (GfWL) which uses encrypted saves. This means that when you backup your save game files you have to do it for the My Documents/My Games folder (if that's where they are, I forget now) *and* the hidden XLive (I think) folder as well under C:\Users\<Your Username>\AppData\Local\Microsoft.
It's one of the reasons I really dislike GfWL as it makes it so bloody awkward to back stuff up. Even then GfWL is so flaky anyway that it can corrupt your saves for no apparent reason. It's a despicable piece of software IMO then needs to die a quiet death! Fortunately, it seems to be doing exactly that anyway as fewer and fewer PC games seem to use it now. Thankfully.
There's more information here on how you should backup GTA IV save files:
http://www.burnmind.com/games/how-to...iv-saved-games
I hope it isn't too late for you.
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