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Mad Poster
#601 Old 15th Jul 2012 at 2:41 AM
Not EA's fault when the Windoze uninstaller acts up.
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Site Helper
#602 Old 15th Jul 2012 at 2:51 AM
Quote: Originally posted by onthesea
do you have any idea why an unexpected shut down corrupts files ?
If a program crashes while it is saving its data, the data won't be written fully or correctly. Crashes are never good; they imply that something has gone really wrong.

Quote: Originally posted by onthesea
also, what do you mean by extracting appearances ? i've used sim PE before but i've never tried this before. if this works will the whole sim be extracted, like their memories & relationships, or will everything be wiped out ?
Only the sim's appearance will be extracted. You can then use that appearance to recreate the sim in CAS. Their memories, relationships, skills, etc. will not be saved. However, you can recreate some of those things using tools like SimPE, the SimBlender, debug mode, etc.

Quote: Originally posted by onthesea
i ended up installing sim PE & located what i think to be desiderata valley but its titled 'unknown.' do you have any idea why ?
Likely because the neighborhood was corrupted beyond repair.

Quote: Originally posted by onthesea
do you think doing a system restore might help in any way ?
As far as I know, a system restore will only restore registry entries and program files, not your save game. The only harm would be that a system restore would remove anything that you've done to the system since creating the system restore point.
Banned
#603 Old 15th Jul 2012 at 2:53 AM
It is EAs fault when they set it up to delete not only all neighborhoods (a bit over the top but maybe makes sense in that it's possible any lot will no longer be compatible) but to also automatically delete all custom content is just being an asshole. And yes they set it up to do that. There's no legitimate reason whatsoever to delete all CC just for removing an EP other than being a prick.
Mad Poster
#604 Old 15th Jul 2012 at 3:38 AM
Those no legitimate reason for the player to refuse to protect his own CC by backing it up, and ignoring the popup advising one to do so, which they wouldn't have bothered with if they just wanted to yank you around, is 100% on your head.
Site Helper
#605 Old 15th Jul 2012 at 5:42 AM
Please, this has nothing to do with disappearing neighborhoods. Couldn't you two take this off-topic discussion somewhere else and leave this thread to discuss disappearing neighborhoods?
Mad Poster
#606 Old 15th Jul 2012 at 6:29 AM
I'm done now anyway, but I apologize for not letting it go sooner.
<Apology Llama
Test Subject
#607 Old 6th Aug 2012 at 11:47 PM
Default help me!
okay so i was having the same issue with my neighborhoods disapperaing, so i uninstalled all of my games and reinstalled them again and still i didn't have the default towns (pleasantville, strangetown, and veronaville) so i looked up how to get them back and did the thing where you go into your program files and i just dragged everything into my neighborhoods folder under sims 2 and the towns came back! but now my towns have theses strange white boxes all over them and even the houses when i go into them some things are missing and have this white blotches all over them. can someone please help me fix this so i can just enjoy my game?
Test Subject
#608 Old 12th Aug 2012 at 12:37 AM
Quote: Originally posted by greenbanks92
I just want to give a word of hope to all those whose neighborhoods have gone missing:

If your computer creates restore points, and you still have the missing neighborhood's folder in your EA Games/...The Sims 2/...Neighborhoods folder, you can right-click the missing neighborhood folder, properties, and Previous Versions tab. From there, if you haven't deleted your restore points, you can select a previous version of the missing neighborhodd from before the suspected corruption happened. You might lose a week or so's worth of happenings in your hood, but it's better than having to start all over from scratch.

Thank yoU SO MUCH!! THIS HELPED ME OUT!
My problem was, I was playing the game,then I got a harddrive error and it said I didn't have enough space,when just a few hours before I had over 200 GB. I knew something was wrong and that I should just restart my computer,which I did.But,my fatal move was that I saved my game,and that caused the neighborhood to become corrupted and it dissapeared from the main menu. And after I tried this,everything went back to normal!! I did lose some sets I was working,but losing 2 sets compared to losing my whole neighborhood is alright with me!!
Test Subject
#609 Old 13th Aug 2012 at 5:52 AM
Operating system Windows XP
Computer specs 1Gb RAM
Games Store Edition/Double Deluxe/Nightlife/University/Best of Business/Freetime/Apartment Life

Details of Neighbourhood loss All of them. I completed the Subhood Template Tutorial. One step is to rename folders in order to generate a blank hood for the IDNO. Once you load the game, the only option is to create a custom hood. After extracting the IDNO and creating subhoods in SimPE, I removed the blank hood and the "original"s and "stealth"s from the folder names. Yet the game still only lists the custom neighborhood button. It's also behaving as if I do not have Open For Business and University. It's only accepting my Apartment Life CD.

Neighbourhood File details There are only .package, .png and .reia files listed. This isn't a change. The subhoods and University have only popped up in Program Files. I could copy and past it over but I need a second opinion.

Sim PE Investigation: I can still see all neighborhoods in SimPE. Nothing appears to be corrupted.

Could you also try this: I did. It made no difference.
Test Subject
#610 Old 10th Sep 2012 at 2:14 AM
All my neighborhoods disappeared as well.
My OS is Windows 7 and I have 2GB of RAM, I think.
The reason I didn't want to download an expansion pack online was because I was worried something like this would happen, but when I downloaded the Sims 2 University Life Collection from the EA "Origin" website, all my neighborhoods disappeared.
The only one I have installed on this computer besides University Life Collection is Double Deluxe, and the thing is that in the EA GAMES My Documents folder, everything is exactly where it should be (and therefore SimPE shows no corruption or mistakes in any of my story files). I made one neighborhood with the University Life Collection and that is the only neighborhood in the game when I launch it, none of the 3 premade neighborhoods or any of my custom ones are present at all. The one neighborhood I made with the new pack is located... somewhere that isn't the folder in My Documents, and I can't figure out why or where. I assume the only thing I need to do to restore everything is copy and paste from my backup of the My Documents folder into wherever the location is that the story files are supposed to be stored now? The only other thing I lost is the extensive list of possible neighborhood subsections that I don't have the required expansion packs for (now it only displays 5 of them).
Test Subject
#611 Old 1st Oct 2012 at 6:24 AM
Default Need help!
I unfortunately ran defraggler on my computer system and though I have unistalled the programs and resinstalled them i still have base game neighboor hood missing.... I dont know what to do Ive tried doing an recover on my recycling bin ive attempted to search my back up files and I cant seem to find them... I was wondering if anyone could possibel send me the zip files for the base game neighboor hoods saving me from further frustrations?
Site Helper
#612 Old 1st Oct 2012 at 3:51 PM
I believe that this is what you want:
http://simswiki.info/wiki.php?title...t_Neighborhoods
Test Subject
#613 Old 5th Oct 2012 at 8:02 AM
So, my neighborhood disappeared unexpectedly after a crash.

Operating system: Windows 7 Home Prem

Computer specs: Intel core processor i7-3770 cpu, @3.40GHz, 8.00GB memory, 1 TB hard drive, 7770 graphics card

Games: Sims 2 cd, All expansions(cd/dvd); teen, h&m, kitchen&bath, mansion&garden stuff packs; all patches.

Details of Neighbourhood loss: I was playing a custom hood and testing out a new mod; christianlov's clothing rack. It seemed to work as advertised so I had my sim walk to a community lot. She arrived with no problems. When I had her walk to another community lot the game crashed. Since I have an extremely bloated downloads folder (which has been compressorized within an inch of it's life), I wasn't surprised. I restarted the computer, deleted any cache files and restarted the game. In neighborhood screen I noticed my custom hood was missing, only showing it's custom Downtown which crashed when I tried to load it. Rinse repeat.

Neighbourhood File details: Oddly, the neighborhood files are still there. Lots, characters, ect... Nothing "looks" out of the usual.

Sim PE Investigation: When trying to open the hood with simpe, it's considered unknown with no readable files. No playables, nada.

What changed on your system immediately before the corruption: Only that I had added the clothing rack mod to my DL folder. Nothing else dramatic happened besides that. The crash wasn't even out of the ordinary. I know crashing is bad but my game is always doing it because I have too much CC (I'm an addict and in therapy). I've never had a crash make a neighborhood disappear though.

Attempted Fixes: So I removed my DL folder, I've removed the neighborhood manager file, I've removed the actually Downtown neighborhood file... I haven't tried a reinstall (saving it for last). After reading thru this thread I'm thinking the crash killed the hood but I thought I'd ask for advice anyway. I've been playing this hood for years and had actually just rebuilt it from scratch. Which of course means that while I have all the lots and sims separately packaged, I haven't had a chance to back up the newly built hood.

So yeah, anything you can suggest I'd appreciate. I've already resigned myself to rebuilding and losing some of the new characters I never had a chance to export but it would be great if you had a miracle up your sleeve
Site Helper
#614 Old 5th Oct 2012 at 4:46 PM
The crash probably corrupted your neighborhood. Since you don't have a backup, your only option is to recreate the neighborhood from scratch.
Test Subject
#615 Old 5th Oct 2012 at 6:33 PM
Quote: Originally posted by Mootilda
The crash probably corrupted your neighborhood. Since you don't have a backup, your only option is to recreate the neighborhood from scratch.


Yeah, that's what I figured. Oh well. Thanks for your prompt reply
Test Subject
#616 Old 11th Oct 2012 at 8:35 PM Last edited by NatalieSeductif : 12th Oct 2012 at 11:48 AM. Reason: "no-CD" was wrong wording
Default In total dispair
After I was adapting skins to Warlook meshes on BodyShop, I ran the game next day to find out N001 was gone. I resist to believe this is over.

Operating system: Windows 7 running in Apple BootCamp on a 54GB partition

Computer specs: MacBook Pro Intel i7, @2.40GHz, 4.00GB memory, 0.5TB hard drive

Games: Sims 2 from HD [edited], All expansions; mansion&garden stuff pack; all patches and updates; plus Angels & Nurses by Chris Hatch (BAS) and a lot of CC.

Details of Neighbourhood loss: No idea.

Neighbourhood File details: All files there. N001_Neighborhood.package shrunk to 96 bytes. N001_Neighborhood.bkp 7.6MB. Plus one of these Mac legacy hidden files (.DS_Store).

Sim PE Investigation: File empty.

What changed on your system immediately before the corruption: No idea.

Attempted Fixes: I tried:
- replacing the neighbourhood manager file with the one in the Progs folder
- renaming the neighbourhoods folder, running the game to recreate the standard neighbourhoods, and exchanging the new N001 with my old folder
- exchanging the old N001 package file and the new game-generated one.

There are a series of recently updated 'suburb' packages in my N001 folder and a N001_Neighborhood.bkp file dated May 2011. I wonder if I could use those files to reconstruct the N001 package file with SimPE. I asked at ambertation.de and was referred to you guys and Mootilda.
Site Helper
#617 Old 11th Oct 2012 at 8:44 PM
Quote: Originally posted by NatalieSeductif
Games: Sims 2 no-cd, All expansions; mansion&garden stuff pack; all patches; plus Angels & Nurses by Chris Hatch (BAS) and a lot of CC.
I'm afraid that the first step is to remove your no-cd and run the game legally. We can't support cracked games.

If your neighborhood package was truncated, then your only option is to restore from a working backup of your save game. Unfortunately, a valid backup must include all of the files in your neighborhood folder and its subfolders (Characters, Lots, etc.), not just the neighborhood package itself.
Test Subject
#618 Old 12th Oct 2012 at 11:03 AM
Quote: Originally posted by Mootilda
I'm afraid that the first step is to remove your no-cd and run the game legally. We can't support cracked games.


Thanks, Mootilda. Sorry, I didn't meant my game was cracked. I'm simply not running it from the CD/DVDs like the last poster, since it was patched via EA update long ago.

It's sad to read there's no reconstruction possible for my current N001. I do have a full folder backup, but it's months old. I'll try to run R-Studio's file recovery, but I guess there would be no point as the file must have been overwritten.
Test Subject
#619 Old 12th Oct 2012 at 11:13 AM
Just to be sure: Is there no way to extract from other package files the characters with all their memories and personalities? Sorry, I resist to believe the main file was it all...
Site Helper
#620 Old 12th Oct 2012 at 4:02 PM
Since the neighborhood package was truncated and is unreadable by SimPE, there's no way to properly extract your sims. Memories are stored in the neighborhood package, so they are gone. I believe that this is true for personalities as well, since I can't find a SDSC record in the character file.

I haven't tried this myself, but I've been told that the Alternative Sim Surgery plugin will not work with the standard character files. You could certainly try it yourself, but I believe that it would only give you the sim's appearance, not memories or personalities:
http://www.moreawesomethanyou.com/s...pic,3563.0.html

I'm sorry that I don't have better news, but the neighborhood package contains most of the important data. If it's gone, then there's not much hope.

You can salvage most of your lots, but I understand that it's the sims that you really want.
Test Subject
#621 Old 17th Oct 2012 at 11:45 PM
Just an update: the n001_neighborhood.bkp file worked but everything is like 20 yrs ago, except for the sims bodies and the lots. The last memories are gone and newer sims landed in the default family folder (if you use the summoner mod). Story pics are also there, all in one pot. I wonder where the texts to the pictures are.
Site Helper
#622 Old 18th Oct 2012 at 1:05 AM
Look for files named webentry_#.xml. These are text file which contain the picture descriptions, along with a bunch of tags and other information.
Test Subject
#623 Old 19th Oct 2012 at 12:29 AM
Quote: Originally posted by Mootilda
Look for files named webentry_#.xml. These are text file which contain the picture descriptions, along with a bunch of tags and other information.

Thanks, Mootilda!
Test Subject
#624 Old 20th Oct 2012 at 5:07 AM Last edited by angiesan : 20th Oct 2012 at 5:38 AM.
Hi! I have a problem with my sims 2.
I have seasons and pets expansion packs, I was normally playing the other day with no problems, i stopped playing for like 2 days and now i start the game and my seasons neighborhood disappeared (or should I say all my families).. my sims arent there anymore, just the town with the default families, etc. (don't know if this belongs to "disappearing neighborhoods" or "disappearing families"), i remember accidentally clicking something on the keyboard and then it said something about a snapshot added to storytelling or something like that last time i played, don't know if that could be a problem..also when i start the game it's like im playing for the first time cause the tutorial comes up welcoming me. in the storytelling folders i saw snapshots of all my lost families and when i start a new family i still can see the dog breeds i registered...it's very weird, anyone could help? thanks!
Test Subject
#625 Old 7th Mar 2013 at 7:59 PM
Default Neighborhood shows up as unknown in SimsPE Fix
This helps if your back up is really old and you want to salvage more of your neighborhood then you could with a back up.

Pleasentview suddenly stopped appearing in the neighborhood screen. I had made no alterations since last loading the game and as far as I knew the game closed out correcty. when I used SimsPE it showed it was called Unknown instead of Pleasentview. However, the sub-hoods remained intact (Downtown was still called Downtown, etc.). I ended up getting rid of 1 of the neighborhood files, since it was the most recently modified and seemed to deal with just the main neighborhood in particular, which was N001_Neighborhood.package and replacing it with the older versions of that file from my back ups. It seemed to fix the problem the problem of it not showing up and I can now play Pleasentview.

You do lose some information, particularly in Pleasentview. Some weird things happen in University. Characters will needed to be added to lots using the Tombstone of Life & Death or something similiar and you will prob need SimsPE to fix some relationships. But its a lot more fixable then losing months or more of the whole neighborhood.
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