Finished 3 ages and now lost EVERYTHING | Forums

[jentanne]

I had a crash linking into the desert age after finishing the other three. It said something along the lines of blue_pool_???? and at the bottom it said dumping physical memory. I had to restart my pc and when I got back to the game not even my character name was still there. Any ideas? I even did a full system restore to the day before, but it did nothing. I had to uninstall the game once and it still saved my info...so is there anything I can do or do I have to start over FROM THE BEGINNING Thanks for any help!!!

[jentanne]

I had a crash linking into the desert age after finishing the other three. It said something along the lines of blue_pool_???? and at the bottom it said dumping physical memory. I had to restart my pc and when I got back to the game not even my character name was still there. Any ideas? I even did a full system restore to the day before, but it did nothing. I had to uninstall the game once and it still saved my info...so is there anything I can do or do I have to start over FROM THE BEGINNING Thanks for any help!!!

[Heimdall_G]

1. When you're having crash problems, involuntary reboots, etc., you should regularly check the integrity of your hard disk(s). Not doing so can leave a disk with lost clusters, cross-linked files, etc., which can eventually result in loss of data and/or the dreaded 'disk unavailable' error. To check disk integrity with Win XP:
-- a. Double-click My Computer, and then right-click the hard disk disk you want to check.
-- b. Click Properties, and then click Tools.
-- c. Under Error-checking, click Check Now.
-- d. Click Start.
-- e. Do whatever is appropriate basis the errors found.

2. While there's no function key for saving the game, both Uru and To D'ni autosave on-the-run during game play. If you accept the install defaults, Uru is installed in 'C:\Program Files\Ubi Soft\Cyan Worlds\Uru - Ages Beyond Myst', and Uru - To D'ni is installed in 'C:\Program Files\Ubi Soft\Cyan Worlds\Uru - To D'ni'.

Autosaving is done to a folder named 'sav' and its two subfolders. If these folders disappear or become corrupted, you lose all progress you've made in the game. For default installs, the paths are 'C:\Program Files\Ubi Soft\Cyan Worlds\Uru - Ages Beyond Myst\sav\<hash>\current' and 'C:\Program Files\Ubi Soft\Cyan Worlds\Uru - To D'ni\sav\<hash>\current'. (<hash> is your player name in hexadecimal code.) To back up \sav, simply copy it to somewhere on your hard disk. I've created a folder specifically for that purpose.

The best thing to do is to back up your game progress folders every time you're done playing for the day. If you end up with corrupted or lost \sav files, you can copy the latest saved \sav over the existing \sav, and you're back in business.

You should retain the most recent 3 or 4 copies of \sav, in case your latest set of files was corrupted and you didn't realize it. That way, you're much more likely to have an uncorrupted set available.

3. Losing your character and game progress after a crash isn't uncommon. Rather than repeat what's already been posted in this Forum, I'll refer you to the following topics, which should answer your questions and give you some things to try:

Crashed
Lockup or crash problem.
URU crashes
Character lost, VAULT.DAT corrupted -- bug?

If nothing mentioned in these topics works for you, I'm afraid you're left with starting over from the beginning (and regularly saving your game progress files).

4. Can't tell from your post whether you're playing Uru or the To D'ni expansion pack (Xpack). If you're playing Uru and you do need to start over, you might want to download the Xpack (it's free!), install it, and then complete the game. The Xpack re-installs Uru from the original disk and then patches it for To D'ni content.

The Xpack will download as 'urutodni.zip' or 'urutodni.exe', either being about 170 MB. (You can download from Gigex, but I don't recommend doing so.) Some download sites:

3D Gamers
GamersHell
PlanetMirror
FileFront
FilePlanet
CNET Downloads
Gamespot
Gigex

It's best to install the Xpack from a clean boot, accepting the default install paths. For Win XP:
-- a. Ensure that you're logged on with full Administrator privileges.
-- b. Search your hard disk for \temp or \tmp folders, and delete any files in these folders that aren't currently in use.
-- c. Ensure that the folders to which you're installing the Xpack have full read/write/execute privileges.
-- d. Click Start > Run.
-- e. Type msconfig in the Open box, then click on OK.
-- f. Click on Selective Startup on the General tab.
-- g. Under Selective Startup, clear the check boxes for:
----- Process SYSTEM.INI File
----- Process WIN.INI File
----- Load Startup Items
-- h. On the Services tab, click the Hide All Microsoft Services check box, then click Disable All.
-- i. Click on OK, and then click on Restart.
-- j. Install the Xpack, accepting the default install locations.
-- k. Restore the settings you changed with steps d through i.
-- l. Reboot.
-- m. Check the Uru folders for read-only files, and change the attributes on any you Find.
-- n. Play Uru.

5. Try increasing the size of your virtual memory paging file. Before changing your paging file settings, note what you started with, so that you can go back to those settings if desired. For Win XP, be certain that you're logged on with full Administrator privileges, then:
-- a. Click Start, right-click My Computer, and then click Properties.
-- b. In the System Properties dialog box, click the Advanced tab.
-- c. In the Performance pane, click Settings.
-- d. In the Performance Options dialog box, click the Advanced tab.
-- e. In the Virtual memory pane, click Change.
-- f. Under Drive , click the drive that contains the paging file you want to change.
-- g. Under Paging file size for selected drive, click Custom size.
-- h. Change Initial size and Maximum size to 1500 (file size in megabytes).
-- i. Click Set, and then click OK.
-- j. Click OK to close the Performance Options dialog box, and then click OK to close the System Properties dialog box. Close everything back to the Desktop.
-- k. Reboot.

Heimdall

[This message was edited by Heimdall G on Sun June 27 2004 at 01:53 PM.]

[jentanne]

Thank you so much for such a detailed response. I read thru the thread about the corrupted vault.dat file and I am wondering do I need to save that file every time also? Where do I find it? I guess it won't be SO bad starting all over again, I already know how to do the puzzles, lol.

Oh and thank you for the extra download sites, gigex sucks.

[jentanne]

Okay, just going thru the stuff you were telling me about. I looked in the SAV file and there are a bunch of files in there, so SOMETHING is saved there, there is even a vault.dat file and the size is 36 KB does that mean all my files are still here? If so how do I get to them? here is a list of all the files in the sav folder
avatar customization...with a bunch of #'s
bahroe cave
baron city office
city
cleft
garrison
gira
kadish
neighborhood
personal
teledahn
vault all have a bunch of #'s .sav after them except of course the vault file...I'm hoping all is not lost???

[hogarth...]

It is likely, from your description, that the vault.dat file was corrupted in the crash. If that is the case, there isn't much that can be done to resurrect your game. The best clue that this has, indeed, happened is that your character name does not appear in the sign-on screen.

It *might* be worthwhile to attempt a reinstall of the game, since this will not touch anything in your SAV folder, but don't hold your breath.

If you are forced to replay the game you'll be in good company. Most of us - for various reasons - have had to replay the game. It does go faster the second time...and the third...and the fourth...

(My personal best is a little over 2.5 hours.)

********

hogarth

[Mr Zebe D]

There's a possible fix: see the pinned thread at the top of this forum. Warning - use at your own risk.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Luton UK. GMT.
ER - the est place to chill!

[jentanne]

I downloaded the patcher, I open the zip file I see a black screen appear for less than a second and then nothing...what do I do with it?

Just wanted to say I have tried loading my files to another character name and it does not work. If I leave that character's original vault file it just starts making all new files side by side with the ones I added in. I even tried going back and removing the new ones to see if it would automatically load my old files and it just makes another new one (ex: the cleft file...I now have two under the new screen name) I have restarted the game too, could that be why the patcher is not working? In other words I now have my corrupted character and the new one I started over on.

It really isn't so bad starting over. This time I started in the fortress age, then the mushroom, so I will kind of finish both of those at almost the same time

[Heimdall_G]

jentanne,

'Vault_patcher.zip' should open to give you 'vault_patcher.exe'. Instructions for using the patcher executable are found on the Vault patcher page of The Clockwork Orange BBS Wiki.

In Windows Explorer, when you double-click on other ZIP files, do they open and display their contents? If they do, you may have a damaged 'vault_patcher.zip' download. (Don't use a download accelerator utility to download this file.) If not, you may not have a ZIP file utility installed, or it may not be working correctly.

With your original character's 'vault.dat' being corrupted, what you're seeing when you try loading your files to another character name is what should happen.

At this point, I think you're best advised to just start over by installing the Xpack and completing Uru. When the Xpack installs, it shouldn't delete your game progress files, but just to be on the safe side, back them up before you install.

Heimdall

[This message was edited by Heimdall G on Sun May 30 2004 at 12:44 PM.]

[jentanne]

Thanks again, I have installed the Xpack, all I've seen new so far is more clothes options and that KI thing. I am opening the patcher exe file but I am giving up, it isn't worth it, the time I have spent trying to fix it I could probably be almost to the same point in Uru.
Thanks again,
Jen