Game saves just mysteriously disappeared

[AussieWolfhound]

I have exactly 12 Steam games all up and because i only have a 500gb HD on my mid-range PC, i have all of them installed to my external 1tb HD. It makes no difference in performance though - all games work perfectly and no lag at all... however for some strage reason now the save files for 3 of the games (which i had all completed) have just vanished but yet the save files for the rest of them are still there. The games with missing save files are - The Evil Within, Ghostbusters and Dead Space... but as i said all the rest haven't gone anywhere. I don't really know much about Steam and really only the basics when it comes to PC's in general so i would really appreciate some help and/or advice here. Thanks.

[Axy]

Sorry i dont know

[AussieWolfhound]

@Creep I don't know why i didn't think of that. Anyway i just did that now - i started a new game just now (The Evil Within) and just played long enough to make a save, then i exited and searched my PC for where the save was and found it but now i don't know what to do because i found a folder called "savegame" and in there was 2 more folders with 2-3 files each in them and a "profile" file... wheres using that program you told me about, all it gave me was a .gsba file - that's it. I'm sure all i have to do is simply change the extension name of the .gsba file to something else and place it in the "savegame" folder somewhere but as far as all that stuff goes... do you know what to do exactly cause i wouldn't have a clue?

[The Giving One]

Saves for games can be a bit strange to work with, if you are unfamiliar with their format. Some games make 2 or more files when they save your progress, one can be the actual saved progress and the other maybe the character profile or other data...it really depends on the game.

And, games can often save progress in really strange places. I have King Arthur for example. In my Games folder in Windows 7, I found a "Neocore" folder (the developer's name), and inside THAT folder was "savegame" or something similar.

The point is, games can save progress in really strange places sometimes and in strange ways, too. Sometimes they are in the actual game folder inside your "common" folder inside your "steamapps" folder, which is inside your "Steam" folder, wherever you have Steam installed on your PC.

What about the Steam cloud ? Do you use it at all ? Steam cloud can save your progress in games if you have it enabled for that particular game, if I remember correctly here.

Sorry if none of this is really helpful to you.

[AussieWolfhound]

@The Giving One In the original comment in this thread i said i'm only really a novice when it comes to PC's (and that's true) however i do, basically, understand what Cloud is. I just tried googling everywhere about how i could possibly use Steam Cloud to get the save back, but all i found was how to delete a Seam Cloud save. I watched a couple of youtube tutorials and it said if the game has a cloud icon next to it it's compatible (which TEW is... Dead Space and Ghostbusters aren't sadly) and i went to "Cloud" in the settings and ticked both boxes (well actually they were already ticked) so now what do i do? How do i retrieve a save from Steam Cloud?

[The Giving One]

If the cloud was not enabled already for the game in question, before this happened to you, then sadly I think you have nothing saved there. I don't use the Cloud myself, sorry. In your searching for info about the Cloud, you should have found pretty much all the information there is that you can possibly want to know, concerning Steam Cloud.

Have you tried to follow the good Creep's suggestion ? Look in the folder for the actual games in question and see if there is a "savegame" or "saves" or similarly named folder where the game saves your progress.

Go to "Steam" then "steamapps" and then "common" and you will see game titles. Search inside each game's folder for the folders I mentioned above concerning saves.

Start a new game that does NOT overwrite existing saves, but a game where you can have several different saves at one time. Save your progress, and exit the game and start looking.

Or, try this on a game you are not too concerned with losing your save on, if you can find the original ones in the first place that is. Then exit and search.

Try this on several different games if you need to. This is in respect to the good Creep for the suggestion here.

Also, I am not sure what is going on with these issues of saves and files just up and disappearing on a machine, but check this list for possible software that can affect Steam and games. Especiall check antivirus, although I don't see how that can affect this, but just in case.....

https://support.steampowered.com/kb_article.php?ref=9828-SFLZ-9289

Also, make sure your firewall is configured to allow Steam and games through as exceptions. I had this problem with the Witcher 2, if I can remember correctly, but it was for the .exe file and not the saves. Maybe that can help you.