Backing up mods (Mod Organizer)

[raidenfreeman]

I'm going to move my system to a new disk and I decided to reinstall it fresh instead of cloning them. I of course want to keep my mods for Skyrim, mostly because it takes forever to redownload them :P

 

I've been using MO to install everything, and I also have BOSS (LOOT didn't exist a year ago, or I didn't know about it), SKSE, and in general, I have installed everything in S.T.E.P. core and some of its advanced features. I'm also running an ENB.

 

I guess that I can just copy the whole skyrim folder, as well as the 3 directories of MO (download, mod, cache). But I have no idea how and if MO will be able to reidentify all of my mods and their settings, as well as create new symbolic links (virtual files).

 

Does anyone know how I can do this? I effectively want to backup the whole of Skyrim (I have the disks but it's faster) as well as all of its mods (and save files!) and the ENB (which resides inside the skyrim folder anyway afaik). Thanks in advance!

 

P.S. I googled and searched the forums and couldn't find any similar questions (everything I found was about NMM which just places everything at the skyrim folder), sorry if it's been asked before; just point me to that if so.

[GrantSP]

As for MO there will be no problem with you just making backups of those folders and copying them back to your new MO installation. You should also make copies of your 'profiles' folder.

 

I think I am understanding this correctly, you are reinstalling Windows onto a new disk? That being the case there will be no settings in the registry for the Skyrim installation and there need to be. Just copying the files to the correct location will not be enough for the game to run or for MO to recognize that Skyrim is installed. You will need to install Steam and Skyrim as per usual. Afterwards you can make a backup of the Skyrim folder and restore it to the same location if anything drastic happens to your setup, so long as the registry settings are the same. ie. Windows hasn't been reinstalled.

 

So to reiterate.

MO and all of its settings can safely be copied to a new location and your mods and profiles, etc. will be there for you.

If your Windows system is a fresh install, Skyrim and Steam will need to be installed so the correct registry settings are in place.

[DoubleYou]

Just copy the ModOrganizer folder to the new drive.

 

For Skyrim:

1. Copy Skyrim to the drive

2. Download and install Steam

3. Move your Skyrim directory to Steam/steamapps/common

4. Install Skyrim through Steam. Steam will see the Skyrim files and not download them, merely verifying that all the files are there.

[BossNoob]

I think you need to save/restore the Profile folder for Mod Organizer as well? If you run SkyrimLauncher, be aware that it may reset your Skyrim.ini and SkyrimPrefs.ini and download any mods you've subscribed to on Steam.

 

I just went through this a couple of weeks ago on a new build using pretty much the same steps, except I let Steam install Skyrim from scratch to get me back to a clean slate. I also had to delete the Steam subscribed mods from the Skyrim\data folder to let Mod Organizer manage those.

[GrantSP]

Without wanting to stay off-topic too long.

The best option with Steam Workshop installed mods is:

 

• Subscribe to them
• Create an archive of that mod
• Unsubscribe, so Steam doesn't stuff up your clean data folder
• Install the mod in MO and let MO maintain it.

[raidenfreeman]

Thank you very much everyone! I got it! I don't have any workshop mods, so it's fine :)