Save files on old hard drive replaced by files on new drive

[helka-exe]

I built a new pc a while back with new SSD where my sims saves are stored and today I put in my old SSD with my old saves in the pc. I tried to get my old saves back along with my new ones so I can play both, but when I went to copy the saves they were the same ones on both drives, the new ones after building new pc. How can it be possible? Does sims 4 update saves on multiple drives, as long as there is Sims 4 folder on it? I can't find old saves as the folder that is supposed to have them is identical to my current one. Both are called Local Disk but different letter and I renamed the old drive but it still has new saves only.

Are my old saves lost forever? I had many families there that I loved I googled it and many forums says that I just copy files from old folder but how can they be replaced by my current files, I do not understand.

[puzzlezaddict]

@helka-exe  No, Sims 4 wouldn't update your saves or other user data on its own.  When you say the saves are the same, do you mean the file names are the same?  That's to be expected: the game numbers saves in the same order each time.  So for each new install, the first save created will always be Slot_00000002.save regardless of how many saves you had on another computer.

At this point, what you can do is renumber the saves from the old SSD so they don't share names with your current saves.  The file names have to be in a specific format: Slot_ followed by an eight-digit hexidecimal (numbers 0-9, letters a-f) number followed by .save .  The .verx extensions denote backup copies, and these are valid saves too: you can load one if you delete the .verx extension and renumber the save so it doesn't have the same name as the more current version.  It doesn't actually matter whether the saves are numbered in order, only that they follow this format.

If you're not sure what to do here, please post a screenshot of each folder that contains saves, as in, I want to see the file names themselves.  Put the folder in detail view so I can see the dates and file sizes too, not just the names.

[helka-exe]

@puzzlezaddict

the file dates and sizes are identical, i will add them to the current files with different names just to make sure though but here are screenshots, you can see file path as well. The old ones I directly copied the Sims 4 folder and pasted to a different hard drive along with other game saves

[puzzlezaddict]

@helka-exe  That is quite strange, and I'm not sure how this would have happened.  Is the other data that was stored on the old SSD still intact?

[helka-exe]

@puzzlezaddict  Unfortunately no I had the SSD wiped after moving all important files. I do have the entire Sims 4 folder though and it is not just the saves but the whole folder that is identical, including CC and things I did not have installed before switching to new pc. All other game saves are fine though only sims 4 is affected which makes me more confused I still have all my saves for other games dating back to 2019 to when I first built the old pc saved in this "old files" folder...

[puzzlezaddict]

@helka-exe  Then the only explanation I can think of is that you somehow copied over the new Sims 4 folder, and it overwrote the old one.  There's no way Sims 4 itself did this, and OneDrive shouldn't either unless the "old files" folder was in Documents or another folder that OneDrive syncs.  Even a cleaner app would have simply removed one set of files, if it did anything at all, rather than replacing the old with the new.

I'm sorry, but I don't know what else to tell you.  If the old saves are gone, and the drive that held them has been wiped, there's no way to get them back.

[helka-exe]

@puzzlezaddictI figured as much, thank you for the help anyway I have recreated some of the families since but just wanted to see if I could get my old gameplay back. Who knows what went wrong with it but it is clear that it's gone now. At least I know to be more careful with transferring files in the future