HD Crashed. Data semi-lost. Recover Mods, or at least list?

[Darklustre]

My computer crashed and OS had to be reinstalled. All data was wiped from C: but somehow D: still shows data. Most of my modding files were safe on D:. However, even though I can see the files in D: I can't get Mod Organizer running and it says it can't find .exe. I also can't find appdata folder. 

1. Can you give me advice on how I might go about recovering my mods or at least be able to see the list of mods in my MO2 so I'll know what to redownload again? 

2. If I redownload MO2, is it possible the mods will still be in the folder, once I'm able to activate the program and reinstate a backup or does it not work like that? 

Your help is much appreciated.

Edited February 25, 2024 by Darklustre

[Greg]

If you used Instance mode without setting custom paths, the mods and downloads were all stored in C:\Users\[username]\AppData\Local\ModOrganizer.

[Darklustre]

I installed everything on D: so I was assuming all the files would be located there? Where do the backups save to when you install the program to D:?

[z929669]

2 hours ago, Darklustre said:

I installed everything on D: so I was assuming all the files would be located there? Where do the backups save to when you install the program to D:?

From your screenshot, it looks like you installed MO in instanced mode. Read https://stepmodifications.org/wiki/Guide:System_Setup_Guide#MO_First-Launch_Setup

Once you have your instance configured for whatever game you are running (assuming SSE), go to %LOCALAPPDATA%\ModOrganizer

Copy and paste that^ into the 'Run' dialog by right-clicking the Windows Start menu and choosing 'Run'

You should be able to start MO and select the instance you created. You may need to copy the files manually into your new instance at %LOCALAPPDATA%\ModOrganizer\<instanceName>\profiles\<profileName>

[Greg]

2 hours ago, Darklustre said:

I installed everything on D: so I was assuming all the files would be located there? Where do the backups save to when you install the program to D:?

When you install and first run Mod Organizer, you are given a choice of modes to use:

• Portable installed the Mods, Downloads, and Profiles folder directly in the Mod Organizer folder. Although this works, Portable mode is discouraged because it requires installing a new copy of Mod Organizer for every game you play and keeping all of these updated to the latest version is a grand pain. Don't do it.
• Instanced mode is the most flexible option because you use one and only copy of Mod Organizer to managed all your games and all your profiles within these games. This is the (highly) recommended option.

The contention I have with Mod Organizer is that Instanced mode defaults to storing your profiles, mods and downloads folders in C:\Users\[username]\AppData\Local\ModOrganizer and most people (myself including) are using smaller system drives (C:) with larger data/game drives (D: ... Z:). Most people just select Instance mode, select the appropriate game, and click OK without realizing the game data is stored in a hidden folder on the system drive. The alternative is to select Instance mode and somewhere before finalizing the selection you can set the base directory to something more appropriate (say D:\Modding\Instances or whatever). From here on out, the D:\Modding\Instances folder will contain one folder for each of your instances and these folders contain your downloads and mods.

I'm assuming this doesn't really help answer your direct question though. The bottom line is that if you had not set base directory to something explicit, all your downloads and mods were on the C: drive and this doesn't help if everything on that drive is gone.

[z929669]

52 minutes ago, Greg said:

The contention I have with Mod Organizer is that Instanced mode defaults to storing your profiles, mods and downloads folders in C:\Users\[username]\AppData\Local\ModOrganizer and most people (myself including) are using smaller system drives (C:) with larger data/game drives (D: ... Z:). Most people just select Instance mode, select the appropriate game, and click OK without realizing the game data is stored in a hidden folder on the system drive. The alternative is to select Instance mode and somewhere before finalizing the selection you can set the base directory to something more appropriate (say D:\Modding\Instances or whatever). From here on out, the D:\Modding\Instances folder will contain one folder for each of your instances and these folders contain your downloads and mods.

I'm assuming this doesn't really help answer your direct question though. The bottom line is that if you had not set base directory to something explicit, all your downloads and mods were on the C: drive and this doesn't help if everything on that drive is gone.

Yes, this is good advice for most, I'm guessing. I misinterpreted the OP. If the defaults were used and the C drive has been reformatted, then all instances containing mods/downloads/profiles would be gone gone.

I happen to have a very large C drive and keep regular backups of important file locations on a portable drive. I have configured my modding and 'working' paths as Windows Libraries with File History backups. Using Windows Libraries, you can also link to paths on other drives and use File History.

[Darklustre]

So, since my laptop is failing, is there a directory or something I can go to and copy all my mods and paste them onto an external so that I can just paste them back into MO directory for when my laptop finally fails? I was able to do that with all my Morrowind mods but that was before MO2. 

[Greg]

If you are using Mod Organizer in instance mode with the default settings, all of the files are in C:\Users\[username]\AppData\Local\ModOrganizer. Just replace "[username]" with your own user name in that path. If you have plenty of space on the external drive, you could just copy the entire folder to the external drive.

[Darklustre]

Thank you! Now, to another problem I'm having that's related. I am trying to download Loot but it says there is already a Loot installed. There are some files remaining in my D: where it was installed before, but no .exe. It says to use Add or Remove programs to uninstall it, but I can't located it to remove it.

How would you resolve this?