should I back up my data?

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Order 66

Order 66

Grand Moff
Apr 13, 2023
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I only use this PC for gaming, so in the event that something happens to my data, all I lose is time (reinstalling games and launchers) should I back up my data?
 
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Most online games tend to backup to the cloud/launcher. I personally back up the install files of all of my games. Steam makes it super easy, some of the others require you take a few steps to get them to accept a 'moved in' file, as it were. My data cap is such that if I had to re-download all my games I would bust out pretty quickly.
 
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punkncat said:
Most online games tend to backup to the cloud/launcher. I personally back up the install files of all of my games. Steam makes it super easy, some of the others require you take a few steps to get them to accept a 'moved in' file, as it were. My data cap is such that if I had to re-download all my games I would bust out pretty quickly.
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Yeah, I think most of my games would be fine to be backed up but I am not sure how Fortnite would work, since it seems like you have to re-download it regardless (I am probably wrong though)
 
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Order 66 said:
Yeah, I think most of my games would be fine to be backed up but I am not sure how Fortnite would work, since it seems like you have to re-download it regardless (I am probably wrong though)
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Generally speaking, there is a trick where you start the download and stop it. You move a "common" file into the location of the install and then it thinks it downloaded it. Steam makes it super easy where you can just move a folder, it confirms it, and you are ready.
 
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Order 66 said:
all I lose is time (reinstalling games and launchers)..?
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if you are only playing online games, this may be true.

but many other's saves and configuration data will be stored in 'User' and/or 'ProgramData' folders on disk, some even within the installation folder itself.

i've lost 100s of hours in some games in the past before i started properly backing up the data.

for the game's data itself many times you can just copy & paste the entire game folder to another location, maybe zip it up and save some space.
then when you want to reinstall, place it in the game provider's installation path and choose to verify files.
 
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JohnBonhamsGhost said:
if you are only playing online games, this may be true.

but many other's saves and configuration data will be stored in 'User' and/or 'ProgramData' folders on disk, some even within the installation folder itself.

i've lost 100s of hours in some games in the past before i started properly backing up the data.
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I actually have a similar story, I was playing a game called Beamng. drive (car sandbox game) and I had just updated it at the time but for some reason, my mods didn't transfer over from the older version to the new one, and I ended up accidentally deleting the old version with all of my mods so I lost a bunch of time trying to find and reinstall the mods. I actually lost a mod permanently because when I went to redownload it I discovered it had been taken off the repository due to being too buggy.
 
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yeah, any mods i download i usually keep in a separate folder stored away.
along with any other thing i had to download separately.
Order 66 said:
when I went to redownload it I discovered it had been taken off the repository due to being too buggy
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many times you can find gamer sites that will continue to host and offer mods like this through personal sharing.

i'm sure the majority are not allowed to be linked through Tom's.
 
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JohnBonhamsGhost said:
yeah, any mods i download i usually keep in a separate folder stored away.
along with any other thing i had to download separately.

many times you can find gamer sites that will continue to host and offer mods like this through personal sharing.

i'm sure the majority are not allowed to be linked through Tom's.
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I am aware of some of them, however, most of them I don't trust because of the potential for malware. speaking of things that aren't allowed, I (on some days) noticed a big uptick in spam/advertising on some of the forums here. The people that do this frustrate me so much, because all I am trying to do is keep my eye on the forums and help people to the best of my ability (which is unfortunately not much ability because I haven't run in to very many issues myself so I don't have that experience) but yet, I am spammed with advertising some days.
 
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As far as I know with Steam, EA Play, Epic Game Store, and GOG, you can copy the games around all you want. There's nothing tracking them with regards to how many copies there are, and unless the game comes attached with some sort of ancient DRM, there's no limit to how many machines they can be installed to. Or at least, there hasn't been any game as far as I'm aware of with this limitation still (because it's hugely negative PR if anyone finds out)

And restoring games is easy: just plop them in the client's library folder and "install" them. Most of the time, the client will realize the game files are there, do a verification to make sure it's all there, update as necessary, and it'll be done. With Steam you can shortcut that process, but I'm finding it takes more work than just having Steam discover the files.

In any case, if these are just games we're talking about backing up, unless you have a really slow internet connection or a data cap, I'm not seeing much of a point these days in backing games up. It's not like there's a fire in any one of the major companies that's spelling their doom right now.

However, if you're talking about your save files and whatnot and the client doesn't have a cloud storage/syncing feature, then yes, you should back those files up. Most of them will be found somewhere in your user folder, either in Documents, Saved Games, or AppData.
 
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hotaru.hino said:
As far as I know with Steam, EA Play, Epic Game Store, and GOG, you can copy the games around all you want. There's nothing tracking them with regards to how many copies there are, and unless the game comes attached with some sort of ancient DRM, there's no limit to how many machines they can be installed to. Or at least, there hasn't been any game as far as I'm aware of with this limitation still (because it's hugely negative PR if anyone finds out)

And restoring games is easy: just plop them in the client's library folder and "install" them. Most of the time, the client will realize the game files are there, do a verification to make sure it's all there, update as necessary, and it'll be done. With Steam you can shortcut that process, but I'm finding it takes more work than just having Steam discover the files.

In any case, if these are just games we're talking about backing up, unless you have a really slow internet connection or a data cap, I'm not seeing much of a point these days in backing games up. It's not like there's a fire in any one of the major companies that's spelling their doom right now.

However, if you're talking about your save files and whatnot and the client doesn't have a cloud storage/syncing feature, then yes, you should back those files up. Most of them will be found somewhere in your user folder, either in Documents, Saved Games, or AppData.
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I am pretty sure Jedi Survivor uses Denuvo which people have said causes performance issues
 
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Order 66 said:
I swear I remember a tom's hardware article about it (if there is one I cannot seem to find it )
but there you go.
www.pcgamer.com

Star Wars Jedi: Survivor Steam reviews hit 'mostly negative' as players slam performance issues—'F*** us PC gamers right?'

Even powerful PCs are running into bugs and stutters in Cal Kestis' latest adventure.
www.pcgamer.com www.pcgamer.com
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So apparently, and I didn't know this, there's another side of Denuvo called Anti-Tamper.

But it limits you to 5 activation per day, assuming https://www.pcgamingwiki.com/wiki/Denuvo is correct.
 
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hotaru.hino said:
There's nothing tracking them with regards to how many copies there are, and unless the game comes attached with some sort of ancient DRM, there's no limit to how many machines they can be installed to
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I have head butted two games that said I had installed to many copies both on steam . Original Crysis said I had reached my 50 install count and Mirrors Edge . I contacted Steam and both times was told to take it up with EA.

Never went back to Mirrors edge but went to GOG and bought Crysis on sale. But just those 2 game ever any issue.
 
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stonecarver said:
I have head butted two games that said I had installed to many copies both on steam . Original Crysis said I had reached my 50 install count and Mirrors Edge . I contacted Steam and both times was told to take it up with EA.

Never went back to Mirrors edge but went to GOG and bought Crysis on sale. But just those 2 game ever any issue.
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My question is how do you get even remotely close to a 50 install limit?
 
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Order 66 said:
My question is how do you get even remotely close to a 50 install limit?
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I didn't I bought it in December and went to put it on a new xmas motherboard in January and thats what Steam said after install when I went to play.
-----Window popped up saying I had reached the 50 install limit and If I want to play I need to buy a new copy of Crysis.

So I did off GOG 😀
 
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stonecarver said:
I didn't I bought it in December and went to put it on a new xmas motherboard in January and thats what Steam said after install when I went to play.
-----Window popped up saying I had reached the 50 install limit and If I want to play I need to buy a new copy of Crysis.

So I did off GOG 😀
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(potentially dumb question) are you referring to the original crysis or crysis remastered?
 
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stonecarver said:
I have head butted two games that said I had installed to many copies both on steam . Original Crysis said I had reached my 50 install count and Mirrors Edge . I contacted Steam and both times was told to take it up with EA.

Never went back to Mirrors edge but went to GOG and bought Crysis on sale. But just those 2 game ever any issue.
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Those games likely had EA's old DRM on it that had activation limits because that was their favorite thing to do back in the late 2000s.

EDIT: Yeah, Steam notes that the original Crysis "Incorporates 3rd-party DRM: SecuROM™ 50 machine activation limit"

But the flip side is nobody uses SecuROM anymore and EA probably can't be half arsed to remove it from the Steam version.
 
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