Not smarter than a 5th grader

middleson · 01-15-2011, 11:13 AM

I have a solo league that I started back in 6.5, had a hard drive crash but thanks to the constant reminder over the years on this forum I had saved the game to a jump drive. Problem is what do I do now, I am not particulary computer literate, possess a doctorate but it is no help here. I need a step by step instruction on how I can get the game started on my new drive.

1998 Yankees · 01-15-2011, 11:49 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by middleson

I have a solo league that I started back in 6.5, had a hard drive crash but thanks to the constant reminder over the years on this forum I had saved the game to a jump drive. Problem is what do I do now, I am not particulary computer literate, possess a doctorate but it is no help here. I need a step by step instruction on how I can get the game started on my new drive.

Hopefully you are in the right forum in that you are playing OOTPB 11. If so, and you followed these instructions to make your backup:

OOTP Baseball Manual - Backup Game

then you can restore your game from backup by following these instructions:

OOTP Baseball Manual - Restore Game from Backup

conception · 01-15-2011, 01:22 PM

Not sure where or how you saved it, but what you should do is find the saved game folder on your flash drive (it will be named whatever your league was) and right click on it. COPY it and then find your my documents OOTP folder. Copy the file into your saved game folder.

It should work....

actionjackson · 01-15-2011, 01:32 PM

It doesn't sound like he was backing it up though Bruce, it sounds like he was saving it/copying it to either a separate hard drive or a flash drive. If that's the case, there should be some USB plugs (just about the standard for attaching things like flash drives/external hard drives to your computer so that you can view what's on them) somewhere on the front panel of your computer case (where your regular hard drive is housed). Plug it in there. You'll get a message asking you what you want to do. I believe there's an option to do nothing. Click on that. Go into "My Computer". You should see the drive you just attached listed amongst the other drives (C: is the hard drive, D: and sometimes E: is the DVD-ROM drive, and the one you just plugged in should show up with the letter furthest along in the alphabet - on mine it's F:, on my old one it was E: ). Click on it. All your folders and files, including the saved game should be there. Right click on your saved game folder (whatever the name is) and a screen will pop up with various options. Left click on "Copy". Now go to your OOTP Developments folder in My Documents and get into the version that you're running (you said 6.5). Right click on the "saved_games" folder and the same options will pop up as did before. This time left click on "Paste". You might want to get up and stretch or get a beverage because, depending on how big your game folder got and on how fast your computer is, it could take a while to copy it over there. Once it's done, you should see it in the saved_games folder. When you go to startup the game, click on the "Load Saved Game" button and you should see it there. Crossing my fingers for you. Hope it works.

If you did back up the game, which as Bruce noted wasn't available until OOTP11, then disregard these instructions. Hrrm...While I've been putting this together and off eating, conception has put together instructions of much greater brevity. Ah well, what can you do?

middleson · 01-15-2011, 02:33 PM

you are correct actionjackson I was just saving it to the flashdrive, I will give your suggestions a try, would the backup and restore been a better route for me?

actionjackson · 01-15-2011, 02:48 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by middleson

you are correct actionjackson I was just saving it to the flashdrive, I will give your suggestions a try, would the backup and restore been a better route for me?

To be fair conception was correct first. I just piled on. As I said, the backup and restore option only became available with OOTP11. If you're playing this in version 6.5, you won't be able to use it. However if you update it to version 11, which means you have to have 8, 9, and 10 and run it through those first (I don't know how to do this because I've never done it and I've heard some stories of ratings getting screwed up and other stories of everything going just fine - no personal experience though), you can use the backup and restore option. There are pluses and minuses to both. The save to an external drive option takes longer (and gets progressively longer as you move forward in your game), however when you copy it back into your saved_games folder everything is there as it was when you saved it. Backup and restore is quicker up front, but I'm not sure whether everything is there when you go to restore it. I.e. You may only get the bare bones of your game back. It will still work, but I'm not sure if it gives you every single detail that you had before. I'm not sure on this though because I've never used it. If you're a details guy, you might not like that. Others can feel free to chime in on how it works anytime to help middleson make the decision as to what method he'll use in the future or maybe he'll use both just to be like extra sure.

middleson · 01-15-2011, 03:07 PM

You are correct actionjackson reading both posts I realize the instructions were the same, and as you said earlier Conception was more concise. It helped when you are not sure what you are doing to have instructions worded differently. However I am sad to report I failed. After copying the saved games from the flash drive into the folder for the saved games folder in OOTP developments, I went to load game and it was not an option. When I open the folder in My Documents folder I see the files were correctly copied into the folder with todays date. What am I doing wrong guys?

1998 Yankees · 01-15-2011, 03:08 PM

Thanks, conception and aj, for picking me up.

middleson, follow their instructions to get your game copied over and set back up. The only thing I will add is that the backup procedure can be much less time-consuming (copying all those thousands of text files from PC to USB must take a ton of time).

The reason is this (and this is what I do): When the backup is done, you can use WinZip to zip down that folder into one compressed file. Copying that zip file from your PC to the flash drive is much faster. Should anything happen again, you copy it back to your hard drive, unzip it where it's supposed to go, and your game is back in action.

1998 Yankees · 01-15-2011, 03:10 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by middleson

You are correct actionjackson reading both posts I realize the instructions were the same, and as you said earlier Conception was more concise. It helped when you are not sure what you are doing to have instructions worded differently. However I am sad to report I failed. After copying the saved games from the flash drive into the folder for the saved games folder in OOTP developments, I went to load game and it was not an option. When I open the folder in My Documents folder I see the files were correctly copied into the folder with todays date. What am I doing wrong guys?

When you first start the game and are on the main screen, are you clicking Load Game? Because Continue might not work at first.

Also, you may have to set the game to navigate to where your saved games folder is located. You do this on the main screen, Game Preferences, Expert Settings tab, Custom Saved Games Path. Click the Select button to browse. If you get that setting right, then the saved game should appear in the Load Game window.

middleson · 01-15-2011, 03:21 PM

yes, I go to the load game and the only choice it offers is the quick start game that I was playing around with a few days ago when I could not get to the league that we are discussing now.

1998 Yankees · 01-15-2011, 03:37 PM

OK then, here's the deal. Don't change the saved games folder path, as I mentioned above.

Instead, check to see that your saved game folder (yournamefor it.lg) is sitting right next to the quick start game folder (quickstartname.lg) in the OOTP Baseball 11\data\saved_games folder. In my case, I have that in Program Files. I believe you said yours was in My Documents.

If you see them side by side in that folder, and you DON'T see your saved game in the Load Game window, then I would have to guess that there is something wrong with your saved game. In that case, I'm not sure of what else to advise you, other than going to Technical Support.

1998 Yankees · 01-15-2011, 03:42 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by actionjackson

If you're playing this in version 6.5, you won't be able to use it. However if you update it to version 11, which means you have to have 8, 9, and 10 and run it through those first*

By the way, I re-emphasize what aj said here. You never did confirm whether you are actually playing OOTP 11. If your saved game is from a previous version, you will not be able to load it in OOTP 11.

*you do this by downloading the demos for 8, 9, and 10 but results are not optimal, I have heard.

actionjackson · 01-15-2011, 05:28 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by 1998 Yankees

By the way, I re-emphasize what aj said here. You never did confirm whether you are actually playing OOTP 11. If your saved game is from a previous version, you will not be able to load it in OOTP 11.

*you do this by downloading the demos for 8, 9, and 10 but results are not optimal, I have heard.

A suggestion would be to try copying it over to your OOTP Baseball 6.5 folder (if you still have a copy of the game - hopefully you protected your investment by copying it to a flash drive or the second computer that the license agreement allows for - if in fact it did back then - I wouldn't know as I was probably still in my Diamond Mind or Strat computer baseball game days) and see if it works in OOTP 6.5. If it does you can cross your fingers and do as Bruce says or play it in OOTP 6.5, which from all accounts is a very good version, while simultaneously starting a new game in OOTP11. I try to keep my games in the version I started them in as I'm not a very trusting sort, at least not with OOTP. That way I can play with the final patch (have to be careful when using that term around here - sometimes it's anything but final

) of whatever version I'm in and not allow parts of my game to get "lost in translation" as it were. I know others have had very smooth transitions, but I don't trust the process myself.

actionjackson · 01-15-2011, 05:39 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by 1998 Yankees

Thanks, conception and aj, for picking me up.

middleson, follow their instructions to get your game copied over and set back up. The only thing I will add is that the backup procedure can be much less time-consuming (copying all those thousands of text files from PC to USB must take a ton of time).

The reason is this (and this is what I do): When the backup is done, you can use WinZip to zip down that folder into one compressed file. Copying that zip file from your PC to the flash drive is much faster. Should anything happen again, you copy it back to your hard drive, unzip it where it's supposed to go, and your game is back in action.

Question for you sir: When using the backup system, is any of the detail or files lost because it seems to go awfully quick, so I'm wondering if anything gets lost. Or is it like when you go to delete a game.lg file within the game and it goes lickety splitzky versus doing it within the saved_games folder when it takes...seemingly...for...ever and it just happens to be Speedy Gonzalez without losing any files/data. Thanks.

middleson · 01-15-2011, 06:09 PM

Yes, I am playing OOTP 11,I buy every year. It looks as you have described. Thanks to all of you for your help. I guess it is time to throw in the towel, thought I was being so wise in saving to jump drive but I guess not. I will either start over yet again or just move on to something else.

1998 Yankees · 01-15-2011, 06:25 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by actionjackson

Question for you sir: When using the backup system, is any of the detail or files lost because it seems to go awfully quick, so I'm wondering if anything gets lost.

Not if you click Copy All Files instead of just Start Backup. I just ran one that way - everything is in there.

Quote:

Originally Posted by middleson

Yes, I am playing OOTP 11,I buy every year. It looks as you have described. Thanks to all of you for your help. I guess it is time to throw in the towel, thought I was being so wise in saving to jump drive but I guess not. I will either start over yet again or just move on to something else.

Too bad. Well, we tried. Better luck next time (and I do recommend using the Backup / Zip file system that I described above.)

conception · 01-15-2011, 10:54 PM

All is not necessarily lost. What I recommend is moving the folder of your saved game to a different folder, creating a new league with the EXACT SAME NAME, and then copying all of the files from the old league folder into the new league folder.

OOTP 11 has some differences in the way it loads saved games and it doesn't automatically load whatever folders are in your saved game folder. Let me know if that doesn't work, because I assure you there is a solution.

01-15-2011, 11:13 AM	#1
middleson Minors (Rookie Ball) Join Date: Jan 2011 Posts: 27	Not smarter than a 5th grader I have a solo league that I started back in 6.5, had a hard drive crash but thanks to the constant reminder over the years on this forum I had saved the game to a jump drive. Problem is what do I do now, I am not particulary computer literate, possess a doctorate but it is no help here. I need a step by step instruction on how I can get the game started on my new drive.

01-15-2011, 01:32 PM	#4
actionjackson Hall Of Famer Join Date: Apr 2009 Location: Toronto, ON Posts: 6,163	It doesn't sound like he was backing it up though Bruce, it sounds like he was saving it/copying it to either a separate hard drive or a flash drive. If that's the case, there should be some USB plugs (just about the standard for attaching things like flash drives/external hard drives to your computer so that you can view what's on them) somewhere on the front panel of your computer case (where your regular hard drive is housed). Plug it in there. You'll get a message asking you what you want to do. I believe there's an option to do nothing. Click on that. Go into "My Computer". You should see the drive you just attached listed amongst the other drives (C: is the hard drive, D: and sometimes E: is the DVD-ROM drive, and the one you just plugged in should show up with the letter furthest along in the alphabet - on mine it's F:, on my old one it was E: ). Click on it. All your folders and files, including the saved game should be there. Right click on your saved game folder (whatever the name is) and a screen will pop up with various options. Left click on "Copy". Now go to your OOTP Developments folder in My Documents and get into the version that you're running (you said 6.5). Right click on the "saved_games" folder and the same options will pop up as did before. This time left click on "Paste". You might want to get up and stretch or get a beverage because, depending on how big your game folder got and on how fast your computer is, it could take a while to copy it over there. Once it's done, you should see it in the saved_games folder. When you go to startup the game, click on the "Load Saved Game" button and you should see it there. Crossing my fingers for you. Hope it works. If you did back up the game, which as Bruce noted wasn't available until OOTP11, then disregard these instructions. Hrrm...While I've been putting this together and off eating, conception has put together instructions of much greater brevity. Ah well, what can you do? Last edited by actionjackson; 01-15-2011 at 01:34 PM.

01-15-2011, 02:33 PM	#5
middleson Minors (Rookie Ball) Join Date: Jan 2011 Posts: 27	not smarter than a 5th grader you are correct actionjackson I was just saving it to the flashdrive, I will give your suggestions a try, would the backup and restore been a better route for me?

01-15-2011, 03:07 PM	#7
middleson Minors (Rookie Ball) Join Date: Jan 2011 Posts: 27	not smarter than a 5th grader You are correct actionjackson reading both posts I realize the instructions were the same, and as you said earlier Conception was more concise. It helped when you are not sure what you are doing to have instructions worded differently. However I am sad to report I failed. After copying the saved games from the flash drive into the folder for the saved games folder in OOTP developments, I went to load game and it was not an option. When I open the folder in My Documents folder I see the files were correctly copied into the folder with todays date. What am I doing wrong guys?

01-15-2011, 03:21 PM	#10
middleson Minors (Rookie Ball) Join Date: Jan 2011 Posts: 27	not smarter than a 5th grader yes, I go to the load game and the only choice it offers is the quick start game that I was playing around with a few days ago when I could not get to the league that we are discussing now.

01-15-2011, 01:22 PM	#3
conception All Star Starter Join Date: Jan 2008 Posts: 1,150	Not sure where or how you saved it, but what you should do is find the saved game folder on your flash drive (it will be named whatever your league was) and right click on it. COPY it and then find your my documents OOTP folder. Copy the file into your saved game folder. It should work....

01-15-2011, 03:08 PM	#8
1998 Yankees Hall Of Famer Join Date: Aug 2006 Location: Yankee Stadium, back in 1998. Posts: 8,645	Thanks, conception and aj, for picking me up. middleson, follow their instructions to get your game copied over and set back up. The only thing I will add is that the backup procedure can be much less time-consuming (copying all those thousands of text files from PC to USB must take a ton of time). The reason is this (and this is what I do): When the backup is done, you can use WinZip to zip down that folder into one compressed file. Copying that zip file from your PC to the flash drive is much faster. Should anything happen again, you copy it back to your hard drive, unzip it where it's supposed to go, and your game is back in action.

01-15-2011, 03:37 PM	#11
1998 Yankees Hall Of Famer Join Date: Aug 2006 Location: Yankee Stadium, back in 1998. Posts: 8,645	OK then, here's the deal. Don't change the saved games folder path, as I mentioned above. Instead, check to see that your saved game folder (yournamefor it.lg) is sitting right next to the quick start game folder (quickstartname.lg) in the OOTP Baseball 11\data\saved_games folder. In my case, I have that in Program Files. I believe you said yours was in My Documents. If you see them side by side in that folder, and you DON'T see your saved game in the Load Game window, then I would have to guess that there is something wrong with your saved game. In that case, I'm not sure of what else to advise you, other than going to Technical Support. Attached Images

01-15-2011, 06:09 PM	#15
middleson Minors (Rookie Ball) Join Date: Jan 2011 Posts: 27	not smarter than a 5th grader Yes, I am playing OOTP 11,I buy every year. It looks as you have described. Thanks to all of you for your help. I guess it is time to throw in the towel, thought I was being so wise in saving to jump drive but I guess not. I will either start over yet again or just move on to something else.

01-15-2011, 10:54 PM	#17
conception All Star Starter Join Date: Jan 2008 Posts: 1,150	All is not necessarily lost. What I recommend is moving the folder of your saved game to a different folder, creating a new league with the EXACT SAME NAME, and then copying all of the files from the old league folder into the new league folder. OOTP 11 has some differences in the way it loads saved games and it doesn't automatically load whatever folders are in your saved game folder. Let me know if that doesn't work, because I assure you there is a solution. Last edited by conception; 01-15-2011 at 10:56 PM.