Need help retrieving my source folder after reinstalation?

[class1987]

Hi everyone, I have a huge dilemma that has happened to me on train simulator 2019, I've been having trouble with freezing and a lot of issues with the signalling on the game it has been playing up bad which had made me think a corruption had appeared in the game. So having reinstalled the game for some bizzare reason after reinstallation the game has deleted my source folder (my class1987 folder) and have now lost all my models and textures. Luckily I backed up my route and that has been installed back in, my models are in 3ds max saved but have lost all my textures any advice on retrieving my folder back? Any help on this would be most grateful.
Cheers, Ian.
P.S I did a system restore and that didn't help matters either.

[SkylineBoy]

I would imagine they are gone to be honest. They are gone from source but did you back up your Asset folder?

[alanch]

A very hard lesson, but if you have stuff that you value in just one place, with no back up, sooner or later you will lose it. The backup needs to be on a separate disc from the original, because disc drives fail, and preferably with another backup away from your home - plenty of cloud solutions out there. You cannot rely on a single copy of files you value and expect not to lose them.

A long shot, but have you checked your Recycle Bin on the off chance that they may have ended up there.

[class1987]

I checked recycle bin and nothing. Is there a possibility I can retrieve it back from Steam as it saves all your train sim files through there doesn't too?

[SkylineBoy]

Pretty sure it doesn't. Certainly not your own third party stuff anyway. Referring to my earlier question..

I would imagine they are gone to be honest. They are gone from source but did you back up your Asset folder?

I'm guessing you hadn't saved this either?

[dingerb]

check your anti virus,see if it's been quarantined.

[class1987]

check your anti virus,see if it's been quarantined.

Ok I'll give that a shot, thanks.

[Trev123]

There is software available or computer techs who can help to retrieve lost files from a hard drive. Not 100% successful though. https://www.google.com/search?q=retriev ... e&ie=UTF-8

[alanch]

There is software available or computer techs who can help to retrieve lost files from a hard drive. Not 100% successful though. https://www.google.com/search?q=retriev ... e&ie=UTF-8

Costly probably, and the chances of getting stuff back after a re-installation and system restore might not be good. I wish there was a way of convincing people to keep good backups - before they lose stuff.

I use Easus to do disk backups weekly to a USB drive, do file backups of important stuff to NAS and USB drives when I make changes using SyncBackFree, and then backup the really important backups to Dropbox.

[gptech]

for some bizzare reason after reinstallation the game has deleted my source folder

Not bizarre at all; a re-installation means "get rid of the old one and give me a brand spanking new copy", As the Source folder isn't a default one nor any folders that may live within it Steam won't even be aware of it. You'll have "lost" all your 3rd party Assets too: AP, Just Trains, Digital Traction etc and any extras you've installed to the assets that come with the game/tied to your Steam account such as reskins.
The chances of anything being recoverable are practically zero; if you re-installed into the same location on your hard drive then much of the *missing* data will have been overwritten. You could be lucky enough to claw back some 'lost fragments' of the files, but you wouldn't know what to do with them---nobody in here could tell you either.
Rather than waste time trying to find what's gone missing, crack on with creating new skins----had you sent any assets to testers?...they'd be handy people right now as they could send copies back to make life a little easier.

I wish there was a way of convincing people to keep good backups - before they lose stuff.

Unfortunately Alan, it takes instances like this to do any convincing that backups are a *good thing*

[class1987]

for some bizzare reason after reinstallation the game has deleted my source folder

Not bizarre at all; a re-installation means "get rid of the old one and give me a brand spanking new copy", As the Source folder isn't a default one nor any folders that may live within it Steam won't even be aware of it. You'll have "lost" all your 3rd party Assets too: AP, Just Trains, Digital Traction etc and any extras you've installed to the assets that come with the game/tied to your Steam account such as reskins.
The chances of anything being recoverable are practically zero; if you re-installed into the same location on your hard drive then much of the *missing* data will have been overwritten. You could be lucky enough to claw back some 'lost fragments' of the files, but you wouldn't know what to do with them---nobody in here could tell you either.
Rather than waste time trying to find what's gone missing, crack on with creating new skins----had you sent any assets to testers?...they'd be handy people right now as they could send copies back to make life a little easier.

I wish there was a way of convincing people to keep good backups - before they lose stuff.

Unfortunately Alan, it takes instances like this to do any convincing that backups are a *good thing*

S'**T! right I'll just have to re-texture all my models then may take a while but I'll get on track, I'm going to give that disk drill a try see what happens if no luck then I'll just do my original plan. By the way Gary non off your signals and destination screens that we have worked on have gone, they are all been placed back into the game without a glitch or issue.
To make matters even more worse google overlay is refusing to work now I just have the spinning blue circles, any advice on this?

[gptech]

By the way Gary non off your signals and destination screens that we have worked on have gone, they are all been placed back into the game without a glitch or issue.

That's odd; even though they're reskins of Steam acquired DLC assets they should have gone when you re-install as that should be getting the game back to an "as officially supplied" configuration. Good news though, can't complain about that!

Do the UK Banner assets still show?...either in game or as an available asset.

[class1987]

They all went but I had all your download files in the default windows 10 downloads folder so they were safe.
Any advice with getting google overlay working again?

[gptech]

They all went

That's as expected, which doesn't help of course but it's one less mystery.

Any advice with getting google overlay working again?

errr…. not really, but I can clutch at straws----if your API is tied to the particular installation it was set up with, then a new installation could break that relationship. Check your account and API with Google, and rebuild if necessary.

[Squatch]

I've done a similar thing, but fortunately had backed my asset folder up, so recovered from there. The blueprint editor has gone a bit weird now though, it only opens xml up in a browser, and bin files in notepad. Like the associations have got screwed up. Can anyone shed any light? (Sorry for the thread hijack, can start a new one if better).

With the overlay issue, sounds like an issue with the key and/or its installation into TS. Have you tried recreating the key in the Google portal and re-adding it. Also if you've copied and pasted it, be careful that there isn't an errant space at the start or end - that's caught me out before