accidentally deleted town?!

[sione300]

I saved my town the normal way but it took like 10 minutes and still saving so i used ctr alt delete to get out the game. I restarted the game and my town is missing. How do I get my town back?

[cruinne]

Most likely you need to go to a previous save and use it, if you have one, as that save is now corrupted.

1. Press Windows key + E to bring up file explorer.
   
2. Navigate to Documents > Electronic Arts > The Sims 3 > Saves.
   
3. There, look to see if there is a folder with your save's name and ".backup" on the end.
   
4. If so, remove the main save (or rename it to something else).
   
5. Rename the backup folder to take the ".backup" off the end of it.
   
6. Start the game and see if you can load your neighborhood.

To help prevent this in the future: always use the "save as..." option when saving - never use "Save" or "Save and Quit" due to problems with those commands.

It's also a good idea to use two or three different save names, and when using the "Save as..." rotate between them, so you always have a good back up or two of the neighborhood you're playing.

[HiFive]

I use 10 to 12 different, sequentially-numbered saves for my families. I cycle through the numbers over and over, so it goes like this:

Sunset Valley Old Guys 1
Sunset Valley Old Guys 2

etc.

I save the game frequently, since this seems to help with lagging and save corruption issues.

[U DON'T NEED TO KNOW MY NAME]

What r u on about I always use Save option and do use save as but that before I start the game from main menu , to keep a backup . I never came accross these things

[cruinne]

So, the thing with "Save" is that it adds to the old save file. Over time the file can grow large enough that the amount of RAM the game can use isn't large enough to let it save the game.

"Save as" always starts a new file, and helps keep the size under control.