Atomic Systems

I've been slightly worried about my computer giving up the ghost recently. It seems to be getting increasingly slow and I'm half expecting the dreaded blue screen in the not too distant future.

The question I have relating to train simulator, is what happens with all the Steam DLC when a computer dies? How do you ever access it again? I've probably spent hundreds of pounds over the years and am comfortable when I have CDs for things like some of the Just Trains add-ons, but am always slightly uneasy about so much downloaded content from RSC, Just Trains and Creative Rail. If I had a new computer and reinstalled Steam, would it download all my bought content again including the various base game versions which I've had e.g. Train Simulator 2012, 2013, 2014 etc? And how do you download it all again without paying for it all over again?

I've backed up my content and assets folders on an external hard drive, but I still feel uneasy about the whole thing...particularly if my computer is on its last legs.

Any advice or reassurance would be much appreciated.

If I had a new computer and reinstalled Steam, would it download all my bought content again including the various base game versions which I've had e.g. Train Simulator 2012, 2013, 2014 etc?

In short, yes. When you download TS2014 onto a new computer from Steam, all your DLC will be downloaded alongside it automatically. I've done it a few times when I've decided to do a fresh install.

Of course, you will need to make sure that you have the install files for any non-Steam DLC you may have downloaded backed up somewhere.

Hope this helps.

Simply put, the whole idea of Steam is that you don't have to worry about your stuff, at least not the stuff that you've purchased via Steam. Getting a new machine? No problem, once you install the Steam client on the new device and sign in, you can download all your stuff again. It's because of this that I have found Steam to be brilliant. Others will disagree

There are a few caveats (authentication of your account being the main one) and it has been known very occasionally to mess up, but it seems to work for the majority of users.

Stuff that you've bought from independent providers is not covered by this. You will need a backup of these and they'll need to be restored once the rest of the Steam DLC is up and working.

Nobody should own a computer and not have a backup of all the stuff that's valuable to them. Period. Anyone that doesn't and relies wholly on either the vendor (and this extends to Valve/Steam) or luck is taking a big risk.

Not saying that everybody should do all of this next bit, but I have an external hard drive to which all my content is backed-up. The back-up happens without intervention and in the background. I use a small freeware add-on program called FileGee for this. In addition to which, all the distribution packages for the third-party stuff (AP soundpacks, Creative Rail routes, etc.) are backed up to this drive, too. I also maintain a "mods" directory on this drive so that should (or when) the worst happens to my main installation or I have to do a cache-verification, I can be up and running with TS201x just the way it was.

The mods folder and the third-party stuff is in turn backed-up to a free external on-line service. This gives me a little more peace of mind that the truly irreplaceable stuff has something of a safety net. Yes, I'm paranoid

Hope this helps aid understanding.

Rik.

Good morning
Just to add a little more information and reassurance
Just Trains and Armstrong Powerhouse both allow you to re download your purchases simply by logging in to your accounts
This is a great idea and should ensure you don't lose your precious add ons
As Rik has stated though it's always a good idea to have a seperate back up of important items
Kind regards Stephen

If you sense you are about to run into bother, back everything up sooner rather than later. And make more than one back up as well, when my old PC started to BSOD I put everything onto USB's, trouble is one was faulty and I lost the .rwp's that were on that. Thankfully one vendor came to my aid and I got the majority back without having to pay again.

Regards,

Besides having a complete backup on an external disk, I find it indispensable to back up all your login credentials into a little notebook, a real one, made of paper. Mine is over 20 years old, and quite a mess, but figure how many IT tragedies happen in the course of 20 years, and the notebook is still there.

It is also an interesting exercise to make a list of all your logins to see if you still remember them. If you don't, most let you change the password without re-entering it, or they send a new one. Also some browsers and mail clients show you passwords in clear text on demand.

Of course, you can save a lot of those credentials by backing up your profile for browser and mail client. But I trust nothing like I trust my little notebook.

Many thanks for the replies. I feel a lot more reassured that I'm not about to walk into a complete disaster zone if my computer does imminently do a dieing swan act. I'm going to make sure that I 'update' my system of backups as it's a while since I last did this.

I take it that Steam Client realises when it is activated on a computer which does not contain all DLC and as such downloads it again automatically onto the new system without being prompted? At least I hope this is the case.

Hello again
Yes once the steam client is installed and you sign in
Then all your purchased content will download to your computer
That is the beauty of steam
Do be aware though you can only be signed in to steam on one computer at any one time
Kind regards Stephen

K2rover wrote:Many thanks for the replies. I feel a lot more reassured that I'm not about to walk into a complete disaster zone if my computer does imminently do a dieing swan act. I'm going to make sure that I 'update' my system of backups as it's a while since I last did this.

I take it that Steam Client realises when it is activated on a computer which does not contain all DLC and as such downloads it again automatically onto the new system without being prompted? At least I hope this is the case.

When you install steam on a newly formatted system it will ask you to verify your account via an emailed passcode. From then on you can reinstall any game and when you do so all your DLC will also be installed. Unfortunately, third party stuff will have to reinstalled separately. Personally, I've done my best to keep track and backup all this stuff but I'm sure there's a lot of things I've forgotten about. You can make a backup of TS2014 but I personally prefer an even lazier option - backing up steam itself. All you have to do is copy the Steamapps folder and the Steam.exe (and only these) into a new directory on a backup drive. Then, once you've got a new computer/system you copy these back into a new Steam directory. Run the steam.exe and it will automatically re-download all the other components of the program. After the obligatory email check steam all your games will be there ready to play as if nothing had happened.

Another option is why is the computer on it's 'last legs'
If the Hard Disk is in good condition you could put it in to a New Computer.

Nothing would have changed on the Hard Disk but you would have a new Processor, Mother Board, Graphics Card and Power Supply.

But it's still worth backing up your contents and other personal files, photos you might have.
Something like this would do http://www.maplin.co.uk/p/seagate-1tb-b ... sb30-a70nb

Peter

749006 wrote:Another option is why is the computer on it's 'last legs'
If the Hard Disk is in good condition you could put it in to a New Computer.

Indeed, but we don't know how old the drive is or how many hours it has on it. No point in slinging what could be a five year old drive with a bazillion hours on it into a new PC except to copy the data from it.

As a rule of thumb, once they're past three years old*, you've had your monies worth out of it

Besides, electro-mechanical drives are cheap, pretty much as cheap as they've ever been in $/MB terms.

Rik.

*Usual caveats apply; I've seen drives last over ten years of 24x7 operation and others that die within the first three months...

749006 wrote:Another option is why is the computer on it's 'last legs'
If the Hard Disk is in good condition you could put it in to a New Computer.

Nothing would have changed on the Hard Disk but you would have a new Processor, Mother Board, Graphics Card and Power Supply.

But it's still worth backing up your contents and other personal files, photos you might have.
Something like this would do http://www.maplin.co.uk/p/seagate-1tb-b ... sb30-a70nb

Peter

And a fiver cheaper in Currys

Thats what I use for back up and it sure is a great external HD

bri2808 wrote:

749006 wrote:Another option is why is the computer on it's 'last legs'
If the Hard Disk is in good condition you could put it in to a New Computer.

Nothing would have changed on the Hard Disk but you would have a new Processor, Mother Board, Graphics Card and Power Supply.

But it's still worth backing up your contents and other personal files, photos you might have.
Something like this would do http://www.maplin.co.uk/p/seagate-1tb-b ... sb30-a70nb

Peter

And a fiver cheaper in Currys

Thats what I use for back up and it sure is a great external HD

Or you could buy from Scan Computers - good prices and great service. Have a look at the Samsung or Seagate offerings by filtering http://www.scan.co.uk/shop/computer-har ... es-ext/all - I recommend the Samsung drives myself.

+1 for Scan.

Sent from my Transformer Prime TF201 using Tapatalk

Heard a few of my friends have issues with scan, I'd recommend ebuyer instead as I've had multiple orders from them with no issues whatsoever