DS3 save missing

[Deathwing1306]

Hey, I have a new PC and I wanted to play DS3 again (DS2 as well), but the problem is that my saves were on my HDD in my old PC and the PC is not working anymore. So I have transfered my HDD from old PC to new PC, but when I look in all the folders, DS3 neither DS2 saves are there. Tried looking in %appdata% and also to steam folder in steamapps. I have found DS3 and DS2 in my steamapps folder, but they are empty. Can someone explain to me why this happened ? Thanks.

[darklinkpower]

If you didn't format the hdd the saves should still be there. %appdata% redirects to the profile of the signed user, it could be that it's in a different one. You can use Everything to quickly search if the files are still somewhere. Search for DS30000.sl2 and DS2SOFS0000.sl2

https://www.voidtools.com/downloads/

[Deathwing1306]

Originally posted by darklinkpower:

If you didn't format the hdd the saves should still be there. %appdata% redirects to the profile of the signed user, it could be that it's in a different one. You can use Everything to quickly search if the files are still somewhere. Search for DS30000.sl2 and DS2SOFS0000.sl2

https://www.voidtools.com/downloads/

I didn't format my HDD, but even with this "Everything" thing it's not there. I don't understand why. I don't think I have deleted those saves. Why would I delete saves with almost 200 hours of playtime.

[Scavanger]

For darksouls 3 saves- turn on show hidden file/folders and nav to
\Users\[ProfileName]\AppData\Roaming\DarkSoulsIII

can't help with DS2, don't have that installed

[Deathwing1306]

Originally posted by Scavanger:

For darksouls 3 saves- turn on show hidden file/folders and nav to
\Users\[ProfileName]\AppData\Roaming\DarkSoulsIII

can't help with DS2, don't have that installed

I didn't even had DS3 or DS2 in there :D I had it in my steamapps folder, but there wasn't any save. In this location there is nothing about DS :D

[quacksouls]

Just checking: refer to this thread for default locations of your game and save files:
https://steamcommunity.com/app/374320/discussions/0/4203492762814660834/

If you still can't find your save file "DS30000.sl2", sorry there's nothing else I can do to help except to say you should have made backups of your save file. How to backup and restore your save file "DS30000.sl2"? These might help. Note that each save file is tied to a Steam account, so don't use a save file from another account or someone else's save file:

https://steamcommunity.com/app/374320/discussions/0/2970650017896452147/
https://steamcommunity.com/app/374320/discussions/0/2152098843861775918/
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=663774034
It can be as simple as emailing the save file to yourself.

[Deathwing1306]

Originally posted by quacksouls:

Just checking: refer to this thread for default locations of your game and save files:
https://steamcommunity.com/app/374320/discussions/0/4203492762814660834/

If you still can't find your save file "DS30000.sl2", sorry there's nothing else I can do to help except to say you should have made backups of your save file. How to backup and restore your save file "DS30000.sl2"? These might help. Note that each save file is tied to a Steam account, so don't use a save file from another account or someone else's save file:

https://steamcommunity.com/app/374320/discussions/0/2970650017896452147/
https://steamcommunity.com/app/374320/discussions/0/2152098843861775918/
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=663774034
It can be as simple as emailing the save file to yourself.

I also had "DS Saves" file on my C: drive, but it's not there as well. I just don't know why those saves are gone. I even had some installed games on the HDD already and when I linked those folders to my steam, the games just appeared in my library. There is a chance that I have deleted the "DS Saves" folder, but I definitely have not deleted the real folder of my saves.

[Scavanger]

Sorry to hear that you still can not find your saves. All that that is listed above are the default locations for the game and where the saves are saved. At the end of the day you may just need to created some new saves, then make sure you back them up so you don't run into this problem again

[darklinkpower]

It sucks that you couldn't recover them, if they don't show in Everything then they are not anywhere. I lost a few hundreds of hours once too when my HDD died, it sucks but I had an old-ish backup. Fortunately there's this mod that can help you re-make your characters very quickly again: https://www.nexusmods.com/darksouls3/mods/607

I also suggest using a save backup software and point the saves to a cloud service like google drive so they are safe in case something happens. I highly recommend Ludusavi: https://github.com/mtkennerly/ludusavi

As a very last resort of trying to recover you files, you can use a recovery software like recuva, the files should be there if their sectors have not been overwritten: https://www.ccleaner.com/recuva

[Deathwing1306]

Originally posted by darklinkpower:

It sucks that you couldn't recover them, if they don't show in Everything then they are not anywhere. I lost a few hundreds of hours once too when my HDD died, it sucks but I had an old-ish backup. Fortunately there's this mod that can help you re-make your characters very quickly again: https://www.nexusmods.com/darksouls3/mods/607

I also suggest using a save backup software and point the saves to a cloud service like google drive so they are safe in case something happens. I highly recommend Ludusavi: https://github.com/mtkennerly/ludusavi

As a very last resort of trying to recover you files, you can use a recovery software like recuva, the files should be there if their sectors have not been overwritten: https://www.ccleaner.com/recuva

Well, after few hours of searching in that Recuva program, I have found 3x DS3 saves, but all of them are corrupted :/

[Deathwing1306]

Originally posted by darklinkpower:

It sucks that you couldn't recover them, if they don't show in Everything then they are not anywhere. I lost a few hundreds of hours once too when my HDD died, it sucks but I had an old-ish backup. Fortunately there's this mod that can help you re-make your characters very quickly again: https://www.nexusmods.com/darksouls3/mods/607

I also suggest using a save backup software and point the saves to a cloud service like google drive so they are safe in case something happens. I highly recommend Ludusavi: https://github.com/mtkennerly/ludusavi

As a very last resort of trying to recover you files, you can use a recovery software like recuva, the files should be there if their sectors have not been overwritten: https://www.ccleaner.com/recuva

About that Honest Merchant mod, is it bannable or no ? Because I might want to play coop later.

EDIT: Oh I see now. Sorry I am blind.

[darklinkpower]

Honest merchant has been proven to be safe. There are a handful reports of apparent banning, but it's weird since items don't ban anymore anyways so it must be something else. That or they are lying.

You can try using SaveMerge to see if it can read those files and then transfer the characters to your new save, I used it once and it's safe to use: https://www.nexusmods.com/darksouls3/mods/409

[Deathwing1306]

Originally posted by darklinkpower:

Honest merchant has been proven to be safe. There are a handful reports of apparent banning, but it's weird since items don't ban anymore anyways so it must be something else. That or they are lying.

You can try using SaveMerge to see if it can read those files and then transfer the characters to your new save, I used it once and it's safe to use: https://www.nexusmods.com/darksouls3/mods/409

I might try the Honest Merchant later. About that SaveMerge, it says error so :/ unlucky. Thanks for all your help anyways. I really appreciate it.

[Deathwing1306]

Originally posted by darklinkpower:

Honest merchant has been proven to be safe. There are a handful reports of apparent banning, but it's weird since items don't ban anymore anyways so it must be something else. That or they are lying.

You can try using SaveMerge to see if it can read those files and then transfer the characters to your new save, I used it once and it's safe to use: https://www.nexusmods.com/darksouls3/mods/409

OH MY GOD I JUST GOT MY SAVES BACK!!! I realised that I actually placed the "DS Saves" folder on my dad's USB Flash Drive and then I have tried the Recuva program on that one and I got both of my saves. DS2 save and also DS3 save. I am level 239 in DS3 and 160 in DS2 and I am so happy that I didn't lose it. The DS2 save is not exactly where I ended before, but still better than starting all over. Thanks to you mate, I really appreciate your huge effort to help me and you actually helped me a lot. Thank you bro, I love you :D

[darklinkpower]

Awesome, good to hear. Please consider using a save backup software like Ludusavi or similar to prevent future issues like this. It's pretty common to see people losing their saves since FromSoft didn't enable Cloud Saves in their games.

[Scavanger]

\[T]/ good to hear you found them!!!