Atomic Systems

Hello

I have a couple of really basic questions which I would be really grateful if someone could answer them.

Having been using Ts2013 for a couple of months and hearing about Steam making changes that some people do not want, I know that it is possible to make a back up,Do I need a special program to do this and could someone explain to me how its done.

I have also heard that its possible for me to run it without going steam going online?

Many thanks

Darran

Darran,

1. You don't need anything special to make a backup of TS2013, just copy the folders you want to protect to another location on your PC using the Windows copy and paste functions. The key folders to backup are 'Assets' and 'Content'. If you've got room you can copy the whole 'Steam' folder to another location and run TS2013 from there without it getting updated.

2. To run Steam offline follow the steps here: https://support.steampowered.com/kb_art ... -agcb-2555

Andy L

Thanks for the Info Andy, will sort it

koenig wrote:Thanks for the Info Andy, will sort it

If you are looking for simple back up software, and storage space isn't an issue, I'd recommend Microsoft Synctoy from http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download ... x?id=15155 . You set up folder pairs to back up from and to, specify how they are synchronised and then run it. It will produce an exact copy of the folders on another drive - so the first time if you have a large installation, but much faster after that, as it only looks for new, changed and deleted files.

Synctoy doesn't compress the files in any way, so you can easily copy any files you want to restore from the back up into your main installation using Windows Explorer, or 7Zip in two-pane mode which I prefer.

I back up the whole Steam folder, as TS2013 is the only Steam game I have - if you are doing this, make sure you close down the Steam client on the Task Bar before you start your back up, or some files won't be copied.

I have a 1.5tb external hard drive, could I use this to make a back up? and can I use it to copy the whole steam folder as I have a couple of other Steam titles as well.

Many thanks

Darran

koenig wrote:I have a 1.5tb external hard drive, could I use this to make a back up? and can I use it to copy the whole steam folder as I have a couple of other Steam titles as well.

I backup to my external drive, so I'm sure it would work for you - should be plenty of room for all of your Steam games.

If you run Windows 7 you can run "backup and restore" as well.

David W.

If you've plenty of HDD space, just take your copy of Steam offline and install a new copy. Getting it out of Program Files is considered worthwhile, your enhanced stock could just be copied over so no bother with installer. Your old copy would be instantly usable so you could check which routes or scenarios are worth keeping; seems more useful than just a straight copy to me.

One word of caution if you are backing up Railworks using Explorer copy/pasted, only, this may also apply to M$ Sync Toy.
Railworks suffers from very long file names and if you include the length of the total from root to file extension you can get the message "explorer cannot copy file, filename to long" This means you think you have copied everything but you have not.

I use a programme called FolderMatch this has the added advantage of enabling you do do a compare between your original and your updated files so you can see what has changed.

RW_Tools is another good way to back up routes.