Sims 3 - There was an error during lauching

[ICARUS]

My C drive is incredibly small and my world/save was massive (10GB) so I asked my brother to move the Documents folder to my D Drive (there were other steam games that just HAD to go to my C drive, so I tried to have that avoided in the future and... now I cannot launch the Sims 3 at all no matter what I do.

Should I just figure out how to reinstall windows and deal with the fact that once my sims 3 world/save gets too big, I have to delete it and start from scratch?

[cruinne]

It depends on how your brother moved the Documents directory. If he just moved it, then it's likely a problem and it should be put back where it was. If he relocated the entire Documents directory using the Windows tools for doing just that, it shouldn't be an issue. I think the first step to figuring out which he's done.

I'll note two other things:

"There was an error during launch" is usually an error message that you get when you've removed Expansion or Stuff Packs but haven't removed them completely. Generally, running CCleaner's registry clean (switch to the registry clean up tab in it, rather than the regular scan) will fix it.

As for the save was getting too large: always, always, always use "Save as..." and never "Save" or "Save and Quit" with Sims 3. When you use Save and Save and Quit, the old file will continue to grow and grow because it appends the new information onto the file, but with Save As it at least controls this somewhat by creating a new fie each time. You can use "Save as" and the same file name, or alternate between 2-4 filenames which also helps create a sort of back up in case anything goes wrong.

[ICARUS]

He moved it by redirecting it to the other drive with a series of commands, but I don’t remember any of them he used.

Running CCleaner could fix it? I hope so, I’m going to try it, but aaa I really don’t wanna get my hopes up

[NetPCDoc]

cruinne's "Save as..." recommendation is a good one, as far as that goes ...

But if you really do have a truly SMALL C: drive you may want to:

• learn how to mount logical drives on mount-points (aka any empty folder);
• -OR- figure out how to use the Steam client to locate your local Steam Library (Libraries) where you want them.

... personally, I locate my local Steam Libraries on logical drives that have been mounted on C:\<empty-folder-name> mount points; which also keeps them out of the "Program Files" and "Program Files (x86)" folders (and thereby avoid certain MS-Windows' "authority" issues).

[ICARUS]

I usually have all Steam games go to D drive, but for some reason Sims 3 and both The Amazing Spider-Man games refuse to go to D drive and always go to C, no matter what I do - they always create the Electronic Arts folder in C drive documents or Activision folder in C Drive documents.

Still have not been able to load sims 3, don’t even wanna try TASM. I think I should just re-do windows, but I legit don’t know how to (and I don’t even have a USB to install windows onto for the reinstallation later on) so I guess I’m just SoL until I can get someone to reinstall windows for me.

[Mountain King]

Originally posted by Broke-Katan (מוזל):

I usually have all Steam games go to D drive, but for some reason Sims 3 and both The Amazing Spider-Man games refuse to go to D drive and always go to C, no matter what I do - they always create the Electronic Arts folder in C drive documents or Activision folder in C Drive documents.

Still have not been able to load sims 3, don’t even wanna try TASM. I think I should just re-do windows, but I legit don’t know how to (and I don’t even have a USB to install windows onto for the reinstallation later on) so I guess I’m just SoL until I can get someone to reinstall windows for me.

Those folders in Documents are not the game's install directory, it just stores some things in Documents so whichever drive that folder is on is where they will go. Just moving major folders like that can be a problem as you now see, programs might not know where their files went.

[NetPCDoc]

FYI: "Logical drives mounted on an empty folder" can be used to, should one really want to, "expand" your Documents folder by relocating some of those files to such a 'logical drive'.

The Sims 3 is one of those games that uses enough "save" space (in "Documents" folder) to justify a dedicated 'logical drive'. (FYI: several of the newer games have taken the path of hiding their "save data" in user-based locations, such as ...\AppData\LocalLow\..., on the C: drive.)

Of course this does require 'free' (i.e. available, unassigned, unused) drive space to create such a 'logical drive' from; the easiest way to get this is to (purchase and) plugin an external USB (or "thumb", "zip") drive, personally I prefer the Western Digital's "My Passport" drives (when I can find an affordable one).

[ICARUS]

But wait, is there no hope in fixing this issue? I'm not sure what to do.

[cruinne]

Originally posted by Broke-Katan (מוזל):

I usually have all Steam games go to D drive, but for some reason Sims 3 ... no matter what I do - they always create the Electronic Arts folder in C drive documents ...

What you're seeing is that the game itself installs on your D drive, but the user files (mods, saves, custom content) are installed on the C drive in the documents folder. This is normal for a lot of games (having separate install and save directories).

First thing to try: Open your Documents > Electronic Arts folder and rename your "The Sims 3" folder something else (such as, "Old The Sims 3". Then close the folder and try to start the game and see what happens. From there we can try additional solutions if it doesn't work and you tell us what happens.

[ICARUS]

Originally posted by cruinne:

Originally posted by Broke-Katan (מוזל):

I usually have all Steam games go to D drive, but for some reason Sims 3 ... no matter what I do - they always create the Electronic Arts folder in C drive documents ...

What you're seeing is that the game itself installs on your D drive, but the user files (mods, saves, custom content) are installed on the C drive in the documents folder. This is normal for a lot of games (having separate install and save directories).

First thing to try: Open your Documents > Electronic Arts folder and rename your "The Sims 3" folder something else (such as, "Old The Sims 3". Then close the folder and try to start the game and see what happens. From there we can try additional solutions if it doesn't work and you tell us what happens.

So I renamed the sims 3 folder old The Sims 3, tried to launch it, and it sadly said once again “There was an error during startup. Please see the Log for more details.”

I went to check the document again (Electronic Arts) and it created a new The Sims 3, right under Old The Sims 3.

When I click The Sims 3, there’s nothing in it however. I cannot get Steam to work right on my computer right now for forums, but I’ll type what I see in the Old Sims 3. Would deleting one of these fix the issue or would moving these into The Sims 3 folder fix something? I know there’s a thing with TASM games where if you delete something upon installation, it stops the game from barring you from playing it for graphic card things.

Collections
ContentPatch
CurrentGame.sims3
Custom Music
DCBackup
DCCache
Downloads
Exports
FeaturedItems
IGACache
InstalledWorlds
Library
Recorded Videos
SavedOutfits
Saves
Screenshots
SigsCache
Thumbnails

^ those were all folders

CASPartCache.package
compositorCache.package
DeviceConfig.log
Options.ini
scriptCache.package
simCompositorCache.package
Sims3LauncherLogFile.log
Sims3Log.xml
socialCache.package
tslus.bin
userPresets.package
Version.tag

And then 2 xcpt MDMP files and 2 xcpt Text Documents

The launcher log file is empty
And the sims 3 logs xml doesn’t make sense to me (just code)


——————————

Should I just delete the Electronic Arts and Activison folders and remove TASM games and the Sims and have my brother just move the documents back or something and then try to reinstall the sims 3 fresh? Could moving them like this created some sort of conflict?

Thanks by the way

[cruinne]

The log file is pretty useless.

The error you're getting (as I mentioned before) usually occurs because you have removed an Expansion Pack or Stuff Pack. Have you removed/disabled one of those since the last time the game worked?

[ICARUS]

Yeah, I uninstalled the dlcs and tried and it wouldn’t work. I then tried to reinstall the dlcs and still nothing. I uninstalled the base game and reinstalled and tried that (W/ and W/o the dlc installed) and I still got the same results.

[HiFive]

Uninstalling still leaves some registries behind. Some people use CCleaner to get the remaining ones out. CCleaner has a free version, but will send you tons up popups later on, insisting that you need to buy the regular version (I think it's a monthly fee), and the free version will stop working. For a one-time cleanup, the free version is good, though. After that, you'll need to either pay, or uninstall the program.

Or you can try to find another program to do it, or figure out how to do it yourself, which I tried when I removed a DLC a long time ago, but I was unsuccessful.

[cruinne]

The important note: when you start up CCleaner, it's on a different cleaner than you need. You have to switch to its Registry mode for it to work for this issue.