How to Backup Properly?

[Eugene Church]

Originally Posted by actionjackson

This happened to me recently too. I don't know if I'm not doing it right or the game's not doing it right. Since it happened, I've decided to exclusively use the external hard drive method.



This is exactly why I use the .zip file method. Much faster, and I've never had the "time-out" issue. I'm hoping RchW will get a chance to set up a 7-zip tutorial in a different thread if he's not too busy.

I'm going to learn how to zip files... copying 5 millions items takes my computer 16 hours... it took me a week to convert OOTP12 to OOTP19 last year... thank goodness that went well... no problems at all.

My wife is getting a new computer... I'm going to get the IT guy to show me how to zip and unzip files.

[actionjackson]

Originally Posted by Eugene Church

I'm going to learn how to zip files... copying 5 millions items takes my computer 16 hours... it took me a week to convert OOTP12 to OOTP19 last year... thank goodness that went well... no problems at all.

My wife is getting a new computer... I'm going to get the IT guy to show me how to zip and unzip files.

Let me try a little tutorial with pictures to see if it helps...

1) Right-click on the .lg folder in your saved_games folder that you want to compress (put into a .zip file)

2) Click on "Send to"

3) Click on "Compressed (zipped) folder"

[actionjackson]

Once you've clicked on "Compressed (zipped) folder", your computer will start to compress your .lg folder...It should look like this...

[actionjackson]

Once that's done (shouldn't take too long, but your .lg folder is very large, so it will take longer than anything I'm used to), you should see two copies of your .lg folder. The regular .lg folder itself, and a .lg folder that is compressed (zipped)...

[Eugene Church]

Originally Posted by actionjackson

Once you've clicked on "Compressed (zipped) folder", your computer will start to compress your .lg folder...It should look like this...

By golly, I think EC can even do that!
Much obliged, actionjackson.

About 15 years or so, a young 15-year-old fella named Dbacks taught me how to post a screenshot on my IPA Dynasty League Report of the OOTP Dynasty Forum... he gave me "detailed instructions".

He did it with pictures... I'll never forget how he began the instructions: Dbacks posted in the very first post "a screenshot of a cursor"... actually at that time, Dbacks didn't have to begin at such a rudimentary and elementary level... EC "already" had gained that extensive knowledge that that little "arrow-looking thing" was known technically as a "cursor".

He circled the "cursor" in red to help me out.
Yes, Dbacks was my kind of teacher.
And yes, I have been taught by the best... actionjackson now joins the ranks of tech scholars, gurus and geniuses on this Forum.

Dbacks also made me some logos, too... I think I'm still using them in the Islandian Pro Alliance.

Hope he is doing well... he was fine young lad... so is actionjackson.

[RchW]

The key benefit of 7Zip is that it creates a single file which is much faster to copy to an external source. Copy and paste on an ootp league folder of 50,000-80,000 files can take more than a day since each small txt file must be copied just like the larger files one at a time. One duplicate file can stop the process if you are not there.

I'll do a 7Zip thread but not soon. Real life work has me out all week.

[actionjackson]

Now you want to take the compressed folder of your .lg folder and Cut/Paste it to your external hard drive in a folder that you keep your saved OOTP folders in. You know about this part, because this is the part that's taken sixteen hours to do, only to have it hang, and stop because it can't handle the load, or it says there's been an error. You want to Cut/Paste it rather than Copy/Paste it because Copy/Pasting will leave a copy of the compressed .lg folder behind in your saved_games folder.

When you want to reset your game because something happened in it that you don't like and you want to go back in time to do things over, you'll want to "extract" it from your external hard drive to your saved_games folder. When you do this, your computer will tell you that there's already a folder in the saved_games folder with that name, and ask you if you want to overwrite it or not. There are two things you can do: 1) Click on "yes" and overwrite the folder in question or 2) Prior to extracting it, rename the folder in question your league (1).lg instead of your league.lg.

Option #2 will protect your .lg folder in your saved_games folder until you've determined that it's safe to delete it. Option #1 will simply overwrite the .lg folder, and your game will go back to where it was at the time of your previous save.

The next four pics relate to the extraction process that I started talking about in paragraph #2. They're the four steps you need to take in order to reset your .lg folder. The first step shows games that are in my external hard drive saved games folder. You would right click on the game you wish to reset, and a menu will come up. One of the options will be "Extract All...". Left click on that. The next pic shows what happens next. You'll want to left click on the "Browse..." button (highlighted in blue). Using the "Browse" feature, you're gonna select where the extracted folder will end up, which is photo #3. Photo #4 shows the destination folder (your saved_games folder in OOTP20). At the bottom of the "Extract Compressed (Zipped) Folders" page, you'll see two buttons "Extract" and "Cancel". You'll want to left click on the "Extract" button, and it'll either ask you if you want to overwrite (to which you say yes), or start extracting immediately (if decided to change the name of your .lg folder to protect it from being overwritten).

This is all probably overwhelming as hell, but just keep asking questions and I'm pretty confident we can get you to the point where you'll be able to do this.

[actionjackson]

You can find the 7-Zip program that Rich is talking about here. Use the 19.00 download link, as the other one is an alpha version. You want the most recent stable version, and if it's an alpha version, it's still in the testing stage. If you have an x64 (64-bit) computer, use the x64 download link. If you have an x86 (32-bit) computer, use the x86 download link. Download and install it.

When you want to use 7-Zip to open/take a look at your .zip file, follow these instructions (mine is already set up to use 7-Zip, so I'm gonna try and get your 'puter set up to use it):

1) Right-click on the file in question
2) Left-click on "Open with"
3) Left-click on "Choose another app" (unless 7-Zip is already set up, but it probably won't be)
4) Left-click on "More apps"
5) Another list of potential apps will pop up, but it probably won't even be listed there, so Left-click on "Look for another app on this PC"
6) It should take you to your "Program Files" folder. Look for the "7-Zip" folder, which should be at or near the top of the list. Left click on it
7) Left click on "7zFM" (7-Zip File Manager)
8) You'll also want to check the "Always use this app for files of this type" box in the "Choose another app menu" to make this a permanent change (pic #2 underneath "More apps")

Questions?

[micropterus58]

actionjaction, thanks for taking the time to post this information. I have written many test procedures and programs so I know it can be difficult to convey what you know well so others will understand. I have written tutorials for OOTP and other games so I appreciate the effort. I just wish the admins would create a tutorial and FAQ section so vital information could be easily found and the same questions would not be asked every year as I suggested in the past.

[actionjackson]

Originally Posted by micropterus58

actionjaction, thanks for taking the time to post this information. I have written many test procedures and programs so I know it can be difficult to convey what you know well so others will understand. I have written tutorials for OOTP and other games so I appreciate the effort. I just wish the admins would create a tutorial and FAQ section so vital information could be easily found and the same questions would not be asked every year as I suggested in the past.

Thanks micropterus58. I try to explain it with words, and it all comes out gobble-dee-gook. Throw some pictures up there, and POOF! it becomes clear, and is more easily understood.

[Westheim]

Originally Posted by actionjackson

Compresses to save space, and makes the transfer to the external drive almost instant. Not necessary. I just find it easier.

This is my main reason for zipping my league files. In intervals I move my league file either to Dropbox or an USB stick; moving just the one file saves a dramatic amount of time compared to moving like 120k files in a folder.

Re redundancy; external hard drives are great - but they're not Dropbox or any other online storage. If your house burns down, the hard drive will melt as well. Once you've twiddled with a league for seven years you want some more security.

To be REALLY sure, I should stash a second USB stick with a friend. I mean, what's the chance that both our houses burn down AND Dropbox goes out of business?

[Andy]

Originally Posted by Eugene Church

By golly, I think EC can even do that!
Much obliged, actionjackson.

About 15 years or so, a young 15-year-old fella named Dbacks taught me how to post a screenshot on my IPA Dynasty League Report of the OOTP Dynasty Forum... he gave me "detailed instructions".

He did it with pictures... I'll never forget how he began the instructions: Dbacks posted in the very first post "a screenshot of a cursor"... actually at that time, Dbacks didn't have to begin at such a rudimentary and elementary level... EC "already" had gained that extensive knowledge that that little "arrow-looking thing" was known technically as a "cursor".

He circled the "cursor" in red to help me out.
Yes, Dbacks was my kind of teacher.
And yes, I have been taught by the best... actionjackson now joins the ranks of tech scholars, gurus and geniuses on this Forum.

Dbacks also made me some logos, too... I think I'm still using them in the Islandian Pro Alliance.

Hope he is doing well... he was fine young lad... so is actionjackson.

Last I saw, Dbacks (Chris) is doing well. We have some common interests and were friends on Facebook (I deleted my Facebook a little over a year ago). I don't know if it is just freelance or what, but he's a really talented photographer.

[actionjackson]

Originally Posted by Westheim

This is my main reason for zipping my league files. In intervals I move my league file either to Dropbox or an USB stick; moving just the one file saves a dramatic amount of time compared to moving like 120k files in a folder.

Re redundancy; external hard drives are great - but they're not Dropbox or any other online storage. If your house burns down, the hard drive will melt as well. Once you've twiddled with a league for seven years you want some more security.

To be REALLY sure, I should stash a second USB stick with a friend. I mean, what's the chance that both our houses burn down AND Dropbox goes out of business?

Westy...Taking the "Scout Motto" to new extremes. With this DEFCON 5 level of disaster preparedness, I doubt you'll ever lose your beloved raccoons to a natural or unnatural disaster. I get why you do it though. Losing the league would be absolutely crushing after this much work.

[Eugene Church]

Originally Posted by Andy

Last I saw, Dbacks (Chris) is doing well. We have some common interests and were friends on Facebook (I deleted my Facebook a little over a year ago). I don't know if it is just freelance or what, but he's a really talented photographer.

Tell him EC said hello... really enjoyed him in the early days of my OOTP experience... Dbacks is probably married with kids and in his 30s now.
I hope he is blessed with an abundant and happy life.

Thanks for sharing the note with me... much appreciate it.