The Pain of Reinstalling...

dragon wench · Post by **dragon wench** » Tue May 19, 2009 12:19 am

After a computer crash some time back in which I lost most of my data... I finally have my gaming machine back up and running.

And thus begins the extremely tedious process of reinstalling Oblivion (and MW later on) with vast numbers of mods. I really can't face the thought of installing each and every mod I want to use all at once... because this takes hours and hours... So, I'm going to do it in bits. I'm curious though... how does everyone else do it? Do you install in batches or all in one shot.
If the former, which do you begin with?

Before I even begin the game I'm going to add:
Unofficial Oblivion Patch
Unofficial Shivering Isles Patch
Dark Darnified UI
Francesco's
TNR
various face, hair and eye cosmetic improvements
Robert's Male Body Replacer
A female body replacer (Bab's, Robert's or Fantasy.. still not sure)
QTP3 Redimized
SI Texture Pack

Once I get out of the initial dungeon.... I'll slowly start adding more, and I'll probably have 100+ by the time I'm done.

Ugh.... I'm very grateful for all the work modders do, but I *really* wish this were not necessary.. It would be so nice to just play without spending countless hours downloading and installing mods.

fable · Post by **fable** » Tue May 19, 2009 6:51 am

I'd suggest trying to install as many mods as you feel you will use before you begin a new character, to prevent any data corruption. That said, Oblivion is a lot more tolerant of adding and subtracting mods at a later time than Morrowind was. And I'd be sure to install Wrye Bash, because it helps point out mod conflicts, and resolves a lot of issues.

As for mods, you have my current list.

Lately I've been downloading and installing mods of Oblivion dungeons, to try and give them at least a bit of the personalized feeling Morrowind had. One thing I've noticed though is that mods from 2006 often have "dirty entries," and the best way to resolve that is TESEdit used properly. Here's a good thread that discusses the problem.

dragon wench · Post by **dragon wench** » Tue May 19, 2009 1:56 pm

fable wrote:I'd suggest trying to install as many mods as you feel you will use before you begin a new character, to prevent any data corruption. That said, Oblivion is a lot more tolerant of adding and subtracting mods at a later time than Morrowind was. And I'd be sure to install Wrye Bash, because it helps point out mod conflicts, and resolves a lot of issues.

As for mods, you have my current list. Lately I've been downloading and installing mods of Oblivion dungeons, to try and give them at least a bit of the personalized feeling Morrowind had. One thing I've noticed though is that mods from 2006 often have "dirty entries," and the best way to resolve that is TESEdit used properly. Here's a good thread that discusses the problem.

You know.. I do realise I should have installed as many mods as I was planning to use first, But I just don't have the stamina...

Hopefully this won't come back to bite me... I do recall, though, that ES4 is more tolerant than ES3 for this kind of behaviour

Yes, I do have your current list... I am going through both that and Arwen's suggestions, along with a remembering those I've dug up on my own. *sigh* I was just starting to figure out Wrye Bash when I crashed last time...

But yes, I do intend to install that as well, because you are right, it *is* an excellent utility.

LeoStarDragon1 · Post by **LeoStarDragon1** » Wed May 20, 2009 8:00 pm

Hi, Dragon Wench!

Are you also having to download your favorite mods all over again too?!

If so, here's a tip I hope. I save mine, even the ones I can't use or don't use, so that I know not to download them again. That way when I have to start all over again, I don't have to go hunting for mods and risk them being no longer supported.

I was going to save them on disks, but someone gave me the gift of a "My Book", an external hard drive. I store my mods there so if my regular hard drive decides it is done with this cruel world, or something else happens to it, then they won't be affected.

I divide the mods into catergories, like "Mods I Don't Want To Use After All", "Mods That Conflict", "Morrowind Mods I Downloaded In Error", and so on an so forth. Then if I'm reading something exiciting about a new mod, I can look and see if I downloaded it already or not.

As for how I do them. The darn starting area, doesn't allow you to see if some of your mods are indeed working, so I feel the need to rush through it, just to get outside and see if some things look right or not.

Except when I cheat and use the "COC" command or "MoveToQuestTarget" command to test the mods.

I've been busing lately with play testing mods I've found. Plus, with waiting for my left foot to heal. This thing on my foot made me irritable. The doctor said it is either a stone bruise that will go away soon, or a growth that will require a specialist to remove it! Gee, I hope it's the former! My left eye's pain, is either from sleeping in a bad position, or a thing that will require another specialist. But I digress.

Keeping busy with the game has kept my mind off those worries. I'm about to install some more mods I just found before I came here, thanks to Arwen.

Anyway, Dragon Wench, what I was trying to say is, my mood affects whether or not I endure re-installing for hours or so, or in batches. The trick is to not cause conflict problems by doing it in batches. Hm. I hope I made sense!