Chris82's GTA Backup Tutorial

[chris82]

Many people have installed mods (including me) and forgetting to back up GTA. Well, no more. I have created a tut for backing up GTA so that when you need to reinstall, the CD is not needed. (Except for radio stations, but how can you f*ck those up?) Now, this is not warez, because you still need the CD to play the game.

 

First of all, I'll show you entire GTA game backing-up:

 

What you need to do this:

The game(s) you want to back up

20 Minutes of time

About 8-9 GB of harddrive space for backups

 

Step 1: Install games as you normally would (This step can be skipped if you are absolutly sure no mods are installed on your game)

Step 2: Select the game's folder in the install directory*

Step 3: Right click folder and point to 'Send to' then click Compressed (Zipped) Folder**

Step 4: Copy to another folder (i.e. My Documents)

Step 6:Repeat for all games you want to back up all of***

 

Now when you screw something up in the game, for example gta3.img, delete the folder in your actual install and drag the file from the .zip to the install.

 

 

To backup individual files:

 

What you need:

5 minutes of time

 

Step 1: Select the file you want to backup (i.e. shopping.dat)

Step 2: Copy it to the desktop

Step 3: Rename it different from the original file (i.e. shopping_original.dat)

Step 4: Drag backup file to the folder the modded one is in

Step 5: Any time you screw up a file, delete the regular one and make the backup the correct name. This is for people who don't have enough HD space to use the 1st method.

 

CD-backup (Only for GTA3 and Vice City)****

 

What you need:

CD-R(W) drive

Blank CD(s)

 

Step 1: Take all files in the game drictory and copy to a CD

Step 2: Drag 'n drop to install whenever needed

(Again, this method is only for those running low on HD space)

 

Final (old, stupid method)

 

What you need:

Extreme amount of HD space

15-20 minutes of time

 

Step 1: Copy game folder to new directory

Step 2: Repeat as desired

 

That is it for me, and those are the most sensible methods I know of. I did this because I am always seeing people saying "I have to reinstall VC," or "I f*cked up SA," and maybe "GTA3 doesn't work anymore." Comments? Additional methods I didn't cover? Post it. Mods, if you are as sick of people talking about the above as I am, please pin this. Also, a * indicates that step has a note you should read.

 

 

 

NOTES:

 

*Default install directory for GTA games is 'C:/Program Files/Rockstar Games/'GTAIII or Grand Theft Auto Vice City or GTA San Andreas

 

**When you try to compress something, if you have WinZIP or WinRAR or something like that, Windows may say something like "This is not the default program... Windows may not read .zip files correctly just click No, it will do it right anyway

 

***It is possible to create a really giant .zip with every GTA game in it, but I like having 3 different zips better. When you use the .zip backup method, just drag the folders/files you need directly from the zipped folder to your install. DO NOT extract the zip or it will really eat up HD space

 

****If you install VC and create many installs, they will all use the same method, so this method may take a little longer then the others and should only be used when you have almost no HD space-thanks to Suction Testicle Man for pointing this out

 

 

Well, that's it for this tut, I will post guide screens soon. Like I said, comments are welcome, as long as they don't contain the following phrases:

 

Eat sh*t

            Your

            Tut(orial)

            Sucks

            ass

            f*ck

            you

            bitch

            hell

 

Other then that, comment away.

 

Thank you, I will be sure to post other tuts soon

Edited June 24, 2005 by chris82

[Andrew]

Will be helpful to some, good job.

[GT-1]

You only really need to backup the models and data folders. For example i've removed SA from my game but to put it back in I would just need to copy the data/models folders from elsewhere. It's only 1GB also. You never really touch the other folders apart from text maybe.

[Suction Testicle Man]

The CD-Backup method will only work on a computer that has had Vice installed properly at least once, as obvious registry entries are required. Of course, you can copy a .reg file to the CD too, but that is added hassle. Once the registry entries are done, you can make as many installations as you like, as they will all use the same reg data. But tbh, copying files off of a CD to a folder will take longer than to just install a fresh copy using your legit discs.

 

Not knowing how isn't the reason people don't backup, as it is more because they simply can't be f*cked. Your typical 'noob' is a lazy motherf*cker that expects everybody to do his work for him, and is still rude to them. They never learn. The good kind, or more a 'newbie' are ready to learn anyway, and backing up data is common sense they'll figure out pretty quickly.

 

If you want to counter the problem, the solution isn't to pin this and give chris82 the karma star he's looking for, but to remove every poster in the requests topic asking for something they can't even be f*cked to find out if possible. Obviously we can't really do that, so I guess we just have to live with them.

 

 

[chris82]

Thanks for the comments.

 

@GT-1: It is possible to screw up the anim and text folders, too. I said the entire directory-some n00bs delete stuff from the Recycle Bin when they are not thinking.

 

@STM: I'm saying backing. If you look carefully, I said that the CD method should only be used for those low on HD space, I prefer the other methods.

 

 

Obviously we can't really do that, so I guess we just have to live with them.

which is why I made this topic. If there were not as many n00bs, I wouldn't have created this tutorial.

But, I will be sure to add your info in the notes part.

[Suction Testicle Man]

Obviously we can't really do that, so I guess we just have to live with them.

which is why I made this topic. If there were not as many n00bs, I wouldn't have created this tutorial.

But, I will be sure to add your info in the notes part.

I said that this isn't exactly the solution. The problem isn't know-how, it's lazyness. But whatever.