I started the game up today like I do anyother time and it made me start creating a new character from the Recruit Rank. I was a x23 elite. I did not download or mod anything. Can anyone help or explain how this happens?

Ramsul,

You didn't by any chance hit the Reset Appearance Button did you? I haven't seen a follow up on your post so I am thinking that is what may have happened. Anytime you hit Reset Appearance it will show you at the bottom rank during that session. The next time you log on your rank will be restored to its previous point. Hope that is the problem in your case and it is now solved. If not please repost and the people here will offer solutions.

No the Reset Appearance turned out not to be the issue. I have since started to play again, against my better judgement - DAMN YOU UBI. In any case, I only wish I knew how my profile was lost - how the data files were either deleted or corrupted. Since I'll never know, I do not know how to prevent it from happening again. But now I know which folder to backup in case this happens again. I reccommend that everyone back up their profile folder and files just in case. Move them to a secondary hard drive or thumb drive if you can. And do it each time you level.

can someone tell me where the files i need to backup are?

Backup this entire folder:
C:\Documents and Settings\Default\My Documents\My Games\Ubisoft\R6Vegas2

This one is your key:
PlayerProfile.ini