What's my problem:

I installed Freetime and I had installed in the PC TS2 Deluxe,Open For Business,Bon Voyage and IKEA Home Stuff! Also three AnyGame

The only way to play the game is by clicking the IKEA icon,there all the EP's and SP's you have are coulored and the others are shadowed.

After opening and closing the icon a couple of times [NOT LOADING THE GAME](because I forgot to add a .sc4 into the game files)

When I finally remember why I was opening and closing the game for about two times,I open the icon once more and the Freetime icon was shadowed!

I uninstalledand reinstalled it again.This time the game loaded I had no problem for the first time.Two days after I opend the icon and Freetime was again shadowed!
I uninstalled it immediately!

Next time,when I loaded the game (with Freetime uninstalled),there where no neighborhoods at all,nor those maxis have!



Now,something I may have screw up!


OK,let's say my computer user is named MAB

When you explore [My Computer] at the left side there are two folders (those ones we care about).One ofthem is named MyDocuments and the other is named MAB's Documents


In MyDocuments the only subfolder was an folder named EA Games
In MAB's Documents there was all the folders I have (EA Games,AnyGameStarter,SimsCity4,MyMusi,MyPics... ech.)

I thought that this might be the problem why I can't see the neighborhoods,so I draged and dropped the AnyGameStarter and the EA Games from MAB's Documents to MyDocuments,and after that odd things happened!

• IKEA icon still loads the game with no neighborhoods

• AnyGame 1,2,3 icons are not loadingthe game it says "Windows is searching for hidcon.exe. To locate the file yourself, click browse"
• In both MyDocuments and MAB's Documents, the folder AnyGameStarter has as subfolders Anygame 1 and Anygame 2

AnyGame1 has normally a subfolder named EA Games
AnyGame2 has inside a subfolder named AnyGameStarter,inside this AnyGame2,inside this Anygamestarter,inside this anygame 2,and goes and goes untill the path is
[C:\Documents and Settings\MAB\My Documents\AnyGameStarter\AnyGame2\AnyGameStarter\AnyGame2\AnyGameStarter\AnyGame2...]

and finally there are the folders and files:

AnyGame2
AnyGame3
[...]

I can't go any longer as it says "the path is too long"


PLEASE!!!!!!!!!!!
I DON'T MIND REINSTALLING TS2
I JUST WANT TO KNOW IF IT IS POSSIBLE TO RESTORE THE DATA OF AnyGame2!!!

Please I'd apreciatte any reply!!!

As I understand it, you have three problems, in order of severity:
1) You have a subfolder on your disk which is linked to its parent folder.
2) You have moved a program folder and now the files in that folder cannot find each other.
3) You are having a problem with particular EPs being uninstalled for no reason.

Here are my suggestions:
1) That odd path (C:\Documents and Settings\MAB\My Documents\AnyGameStarter\AnyGame2\AnyGameStarter\AnyGame2\AnyGameStarter\AnyGame2...) is a concern. It's possible that your hard drive is going. I would suggest that you backup everything important to an external drive or DVD, then scan your disks for errors. There's no guarantee that you'll be able to recover AnyGame2. If the disk error scan cannot resolve your problem, you may have to delete the entire AnyGame2 folder.

2) Unfortunately, you can't just move programs from one folder to another and expect them to work. If you really want to move your AnyGame folders, you have to edit all of the various BAT and REG files and shortcuts and ensure that they point to the correct folders. The simpler solution is to move EA Games and the AnyGames back where they belong. However, with the infinitely recursive path (problem #1), you'll need to solve your disk problems first.

3) There are a number of things which can cause this problem:

3.A) Do you use the launcher? If so, try bypassing the launcher by running your games from the game executable.

3.B) Try running the Sims2_Full.reg from the AnyGameStarter \ AppFiles folder. This should restore your registry to your full game.

3.C) If you'd like, I can take a look at your AnyGameStarter \ AppFiles folder, to see whether I can find anything which could be causing you problems.

Well Mootilda,we should not waste our time any more It isn't much important.
What I want to do now is to uninstall everything and reinstall them again
How I can do that and will the error exist after the process?



How I can solve this problem in order not to bother me any more,I can't understand what you mean

The first problem isn't a problem with Sims, it's a problem with your computer, so uninstalling Sims won't help - you will have to fix it, the way Mootilda explained.

What don't you understand about the second quote?

I should scan my disks with an antivirus?



3.A)Which is the launcher,the game executable and are you refering toTS2 or AnyGame?

3.B)The AppFiles folder islocated at the end of the path of (C:\Documents and Settings\MAB\My Documents\AnyGameStarter\AnyGame2\AnyGameStarter\AnyGame2\...)
so it is impossible to open!


What I really care now is to fix the error!

No, an antivirus program will not find problems with your hard drive. Windows XP comes with a built in hard drive and file system scanner. This scanner will correct errors on your hard drive.

First, backup anything important on your hard drive, just in case things go really wrong. You may be backing up some corrupted files, but it's still a good idea to have them in case your hard drive is in really bad shape.

Close everything that's running on your system. You can expect your machine to be unavailable for some time.

Right click on your hard drive in Windows Explorer and choose Properties. Go to the Tools tab and click on the Error Checking button. Check both "Automatically fix file system errors" and "Scan for and attempt recovery of bad sectors" and click on the "Start" button. You will likely need to reboot your machine for the scan to begin.

Then, go to work or school or bed, because it may take a while, depending upon how large your hard drive is. The scanner will find problems with your hard drive and mark those sectors unavailable. It will also find problems with your file system and will attempt to fix problems like your recursive directory.

After you have resolved your file system problems, we can discuss the next steps.

Alright,I think I'm done with step 1 how do I proceed now?

I had my PC checked,this morning.I don'T know what time the procces finished,as I was not here!

How do I know if the procces was successful?

After finishing,I restarted my PC,there was no message about the Error Cheking!

If you followed my instructions, then it should have resolved any problems that it found.

Take a look at the bad path (C:\Documents and Settings\MAB\My Documents\AnyGameStarter\AnyGame2\AnyGameStarter\AnyGame2\AnyGameStarter\AnyGame2...). Is it still there? If not, what does the directory look like now?

You might also want to make sure that all of your programs are running as expected and that your data looks right. If everything except the Sims seems to be OK, then we can go to the next step. It might also be useful to see whether the Sims is running correctly.

Can you get at the AnyGameStarter\AppFiles folder? That is the folder with the full game registry entries. If so, please zip and attach the entire AnyGameStarter\AppFiles folder, so that I can check the validity of the registry changer before we continue... we don't want to change your registry with a corrupted file. It would be helpful if you could list your EPs and SPs. If you have any collections, be sure to let me know the individual EPs and SPs included in the collection.

Alternatively, you could try uninstalling all of your Sims 2 EPs and SPs, plus the base game, and then manually cleaning up your registry:
http://www.simswiki.info/wiki.php?t..._Help:Uninstall

Unfortunatly,the bad path is still there!

I couldn't get into the AppFiles,so I .7z the whole AnyGame!
Hope you have a better luck!


Sorry,the whole folder is about 198 mb impossible to attach!





Should I uninstall AnyGame too?

Unfortunately, the error scanner wasn't able to fix your AnyGame, which is pretty odd.

Did the error scanner say that it needed to reboot your machine before it could do the scan? When it rebooted, did you see a black or blue screen with white text which said that it was going to scan your drive? Usually, it gives you the option to cancel the scan by pressing any key; I don't suppose that you canceled the scan by accident? Here's a sample of the screen that I see when scanning my system disk:
http://media.photobucket.com/image/.../chkdsk.jpg?o=6

If you can't get at the AppFiles folder, you probably won't be able to uninstall either. You could try, but I doubt that it will work.

As far as I know, the AnyGameStarter only makes two changes to your system: 1) the AnyGameStarter folder and 2) registry changes. I believe that uninstalling the AnyGameStarter just removes the folder and rolls back the registry changes. I was hoping to undo the registry changes using one of the .reg files in the AppFiles folder, but that's not possible if we can't get to the files in that folder.

If you ran the error check correctly and it wasn't able to fix your recursive folder, then I suppose that you could just delete the AnyGameStarter folder, but only after salvaging everything that you can from that folder (ie, your save games may be OK).

Then, uninstall the game, clean your registry and reinstall everything.

Yes,there was a massage asking wether or not,I want windows to start the checking after I reboot my PC.I answered yes,and I closed all the running aplications and restarted my PC!

There was a blue screen saying that windows was going to check my PC,and there was 9 seconds to cancel it,as you said!Of course I didn't cancelled by mistake!

There was 5 things/tasks that windows should do in order to fix the errors!
The 1st of them,was completed within 30 or 40 seconds!I don't know about the rest,6 hours later when I looked at the screen,windows had already booted to the "users screen"



If salvaging means save,I don't care about any saved data!


And what registry mean?!! I hardly understand it!

I'm sorry if I'm using words that you don't understand. Please be patient with me. I'm just trying to help.

I'm not sure why the hard drive scanner wasn't able to solve your odd path problem, but I wanted to make sure that the scan had completed correctly. It is very annoying that Microsoft doesn't give you the ability to see the error report after the scan has finished, but this is a problem that everyone has.

This FAQ should explain in detail how to clean your registry:
http://www.simswiki.info/wiki.php?t..._Help:Uninstall

I was hoping that you could avoid having to uninstall, clean the registry, and then reinstall everything. That's why I've been trying to get access to your AppFiles folder; there's a file in there which should reset your full game so that it works correctly without a reinstall.

I am sorry if I was offencive! I didn't mean to!
I'd apreciate that you spend time trying to explain me everything in detail!
Sorry once again!



I did what the tutorial tell,and when I am to delete the Current Version/Uninstal folders (those with the numbers),the folders don't exist??!

If a folder doesn't exist, then it was probably uninstalled properly already. You should be able to ignore it and move on to the next folder.

None of TS2 folders were found!

Should I delete the AnyGameStarter registry,as I don't care about it much!


What about the CEP registry?




After uninstalling,and deleting the registries I reinstall TS2?

That's actually a good sign; it means that the game was able to uninstall itself correctly.

Do you intend to use the AnyGameStarter again in the future? I'm not familiar with the AnyGameStarter registry entries and unfortunately Numenor isn't around to answer questions. My tendency would be to leave them unless they actually cause problems. Every time that you make a change to the registry, there's a possibility that you'll do something incorrectly and cause more problems. Because of that, I wouldn't remove anything unless you really need to.

That said, I would still remove the AnyGameStarter folder on your hard drive, because of that bad path, if you haven't already done so.

I'm even less familiar with the CEP registry entries. Someone else will have to help you with this one, although my comments above are applicable: if you aren't having any problems, it's probably safer not to touch the registry. With any luck, when you reinstall the CEP, everything will sort itself out.

That's right. Now that we've ensured that your hard drive is OK; it's time to reinstall the game. Because of your previous problems, I would suggest that you try running after installing each EP or SP, just to ensure that things are working as expected and that you have access to all of the expansion packs that you've installed. If you run and something is missing, let us know right away.

I'll definately use AnyGame again in the future!So I don't touch registries!Nor CEP!



It is impossible to delete this folder!I hope I could!



The problem I faced before was,that after a couple of days or a couple of times booting-quiting TS2 an EP has been uninstalled!

I can't remember clearly,but I thing neither game files existed!

I didn't realize that you were having this problem. What happens when you attempt to delete the folder? We definitely need to resolve this problem before trying the AnyGameStarter again, but it shouldn't affect running the game normally.

Yes, I remember. Please try bypassing the launcher. Here are instructions: http://www.simswiki.info/wiki.php?t...assing_Launcher

It's also possible that there was a problem with the AnyGameStarter, because it effectively uninstalls and reinstalls your EPs every time that it runs, by modifying the registry. I was hoping that we could avoid dealing with the AnyGameStarter for now. If you can get the game running normally without the AGS, then we'll worry about getting the AGS working again later.

I would still recommend running the game after each install. When I've had problems with previous EPs appearing to have been uninstalled, it's always been relatively soon after installing a new EP. If you avoid the launcher and the AGS, I'm hoping that your problems will disappear.

It says:

Cannot delete AnyGameStarter: the file name you speciefied is not valid or too long.
Specify a different file name!

Sorry, I was updating my post when you posted. Would you mind re-reading my most recent post? Thanks.

I also notice that the "bypassing the launcher" FAQ has not been updated for the later EPs and SPs. The technique is similar, but you'll have to find the correct name of the .EXE file by looking in the appropriate folder for each EP or SP.

Did you try to delete the top-most AnyGameStarter folder? i.e., the one immediately under the Documents folder?

How did you try to delete the AnyGameStarter folder? For example, did you try to delete it in Windows Explorer? Do you know how to use a command window? If so, could you please try deleting the folder from a command window?

Also, would you please try renaming the top-most AnyGameStarter folder to AGS for me? Does it work? Do you get an error message?

Yes,that's exactly what I did!



Yes,in windows explorer! Command Window is the one that looks like a blackboard? If so,I don't know how to use it!



This time another error message:

http://www.imagehosting.gr/show.php...titled.png.html

That's unfortunate.

As this article from Microsoft explains, there are a large number of possible reasons for not being able to delete a folder and a similar number of potential solutions:
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/320081

Because of this, it may take some time to find the correct resolution to your problem. However, it's important to remove this corrupt data from your hard drive before trying to reinstall the AnyGameStarter, especially since we cannot rename the folder so that it will not conflict with a new install of the AGS.

My first suggestion is to try this Unlocker program:
http://www.softpedia.com/get/PORTAB...-Portable.shtml

Please note: this is the no-install version of this program; the installable version has more features, but this one should be adequate for your needs.

I've used a previous version of this program (1.8.7) for some time now with great success. Download the zip file. Extract either the X86 (32-bit) or X64 (64-bit) folder to your hard drive, depending upon your system. Run the Unlocker.exe from the extracted location. Select the top-most AnyGameStarter folder. The program will either show you a list of processes which have the folder locked or else you'll see a message that no locking handle has been found. See the screenshots on that website for examples. If you see the first message, choose "Delete" from the action list at the bottom left and then click "Unlock all". I expect that you'll see the second message; if so, choose "Delete" from the list and click OK. If you're unsure what to do, take a screenshot and attach it here, then quit out of the unlocker until I can get back to you.

How is the reinstall going? Have you managed to get the game running correctly without the launcher or AnyGameStarter?

Successful! Unlocker did work!



I have not started yet! I wanted to be sure that everything was ok before proceeding.Now that AnyGame is no longer a problem,I'll start installing!

EDIT:I didn't noticed before but game files in C: haven't been deleted!I installed TS2 Deluxe!Previous game files must have been overwritten!Right?

Excellent. Sorry that it took so long to find a solution.

If you installed in the same location as before, and the installation procedure did not complain, and you are able to run the game correctly, then there's nothing to worry about.