Restoring a STEP modding setup on a new computer

[robmtl]

Hey folks!

Last year I followed the excellent STEP guide to modding Skyrim SE. Later, I ended up rebuilding my gaming rig and having to reinstall Windows. I have the entire contents of my MO2 folders for my Skyrim modding backed up to an external drive. I have found that reinstalling Skyrim and copying the profiles/mods into my new MO2 install, the game crashes on launch.

Does anyone have any advice for reinstalling the 200+ mods from this backup copy? I'm willing to spend a day going through the guide one item at a time, but would like to avoid redownloading mods if at all possible. I suspect that specific steps need to be redone clean (LODgen, etc) and some mods may need to be redownloaded, but trying to avoid redoing the entire process.

Thanks!

[TechAngel85]

I've never actually restored from a backup like that, but if you have all the mods, profile folder, and plugins.txt backed up from your previous install, it should just all go right back to the way it was when everything is restored. If it's not, then I would just suggest redoing the Guide. You can copy your mods from your backup to your new mods folder to prevent you from having to redownload them. You'll just have to "Refresh All Mods" from the menu in MO after you copy and paste mod folders into the new install.

[DoubleYou]

It may just be that you need to reset your INI files in the profile's folder due to changed screen resolution? Describe what happens exactly when you crash. Also, make sure you start the game outside Mod Organizer at least once to set up important registry settings and stuff. 

[Greg]

Also verify that you installed the correct version of SKSE in the game folder.

[robmtl]

The game crashes a few seconds after the main menu launches. I reran BethINI and installed the correct version of SKSE in the game folder.

I think I'm going to go through the STEP list one by one, starting with a fresh install (including MO2 and all the tools), but using my already-downloaded mods in most cases. I don't think the load order or mod list has changed since I originally did STEP about 5 months ago.

[DoubleYou]

There are some mods that get installed to the main game directory, like SSE Engine Fixes. You're probably missing one or more of those dll loaders I would guess. 

[robmtl]

Update: I ended doing a complete reinstall following the guide. For a few of the larger mods that haven't been updated since my previous install I used previously downloaded files. For everything else, there were enough updates, etc. that it was worth simply redoing.

I had checked/updated SSE Engine Fixes, SKSE and other similar files in the Skyrim folder. I suspect it may have been necessary to reclean the masters or something.

Thankfully my new processor (Ryzen 7 5800) was able to do all of the LODGEN steps at the end in about half an hour total!

It might be cool to think about ways in which the STEP guide could be made more "portable", if only by flagging steps that require edits to the Skyrim install directory.

Hopefully Bethesda will simply stop making new Creation Club content/updates for Skyrim soon so that the whole thing will just be more stable for modding.

[Whitestar127]

On 3/2/2021 at 9:44 PM, DoubleYou said:

Also, make sure you start the game outside Mod Organizer at least once to set up important registry settings and stuff.

Is there any way to keep things the way they were (i.e. have a successful restore) if the game has been updated since our last installation? Beause starting the game with the Bethesda launcher will then surely trigger the "Only update this game when I launch it" function in Steam. Is there a way around that, as in has anyone made a .reg file of all those settings that can be run instead of launching the game?

But even if we got it all back the way it was, would that mean that we are locked to the mods we had installed the last time? Because newer mods would require a newer version of SKSE, correct?

Sorry for all the questions. I'm looking for the path of least resistance for the next time (potentially) I'm installing Skyrim, if a few years have passed.  I think I already know the answer though; I'll have to do it all over again.

[DoubleYou]

I think if you put Steam in Offline mode, you don't have to worry about it updating on you. However, the necessary registry entry that I know about is shown below:

Newer mods may require newer versions of the game/skse.