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Making Back-ups

jwc2200

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Making Back-ups

Once again someone has posted saying they did not back-up original game files before modding. OldBoy stresses the importance of this in his 'New to Modding' thread, but new modders just don't seem to get it. Hopefully this will help.

Read this to learn how and what to back-up before you mod Fable.
It is Important to Back-up Files Before Modding Fable
The first thing to do when beginning to mod Fable is back-up the files you intend to make changes to. This how-to guide is based on how I prefer do it. Others may have a different, and maybe even better way, but this has worked well for me.
You will need to download and install Fable Explorer, Albion Explorer, Chocolate Box(May not need FreeRoam if you use this), and either the Free Roam App or the Free Roam fmp.
You would do well to get them and a lot of useful info here:
http://forums.projectego.net/new-modding-fable-3352/
Once these things are done the files that you need to back-up will be in place.
BACK-UP OF ORIGINAL GAME FILES:
First, the locations of the bigs and bins,:
game.bin: C:\Program Files\Microsoft Games\Fable - The Lost Chapters\data\CompiledDefs
script.bin: C:\Program Files\Microsoft Games\Fable - The Lost Chapters\data\CompiledDefs
names.bin: C:\Program Files\Microsoft Games\Fable - The Lost Chapters\data\CompiledDefs
graphics.big: C:\Program Files\Microsoft Games\Fable - The Lost Chapters\data\graphics
textures.big: C:\Program Files\Microsoft Games\Fable - The Lost Chapters\data\graphics\pc
text.big: C:\Program Files\Microsoft Games\Fable - The Lost Chapters\data\lang\English
effects.big: C:\Program Files\Microsoft Games\Fable - The Lost Chapters\data\Misc\pc
FinalAlbion.wad: If you renamed it, it’s backed-up.
To find these folders(WindowsXP at least):
Click MyComputer, click Local Disk (C:), click the folder 'Program Files', click the folder 'Microsoft Games', click the folder 'Fable – The Lost Chapters', click the folder 'data', the files are in sub-folders of 'data'.
Second, the location of the tng files that will be changed when you make changes to the world of Albion:
Final Albion: C:\Program Files\Microsoft Games\Fable - The Lost Chapters\data\Levels
I recommend copying the entire folder.
With any file you want to back-up, copy it and save it to a secure location, somewhere that you will not accidentally delete or otherwise molest them.
Here is where my personal system comes in:
Highlight the file, by moving the mouse over it if you use single-click to access files; or single clicking it if you use double-click to access files.
Next go to the top left of the page, click ‘Edit’, in the block that opens click ‘Copy To Folder'. A window opens that offers locations to save the file.
For the bigs and bins I recommend:
C:\Documents and Settings\Owner\My Documents\My Games\Fable\MOD TOOLS\BACKUPS\ORIG BIGS+BINS
For the tngs and levs I recommend:
C:\Documents and Settings\Owner\My Documents\My Games\Fable\MOD TOOLS\BACKUPS\FINAL ALBION ORIG
Now, any time you make any changes to these files, if Fable crashes, you can copy the files that you changes back to their original locations.
BACK-UP OF MODDED GAME FILES:
Another thing I find helpful is to back-up the modded files that work. If you make changes to the files again you will have a copy of your latest modded files if Fable crashes after new changes.
For modded bigs and bins I recommend:
C:\Documents and Settings\Owner\My Documents\My Games\Fable\MOD TOOLS\BACKUPS\ALTERED BIGS+BINS
For modded tngs I recommend:
C:\Documents and Settings\Owner\My Documents\My Games\Fable\mod tools\BACKUPS\FINAL ALBION MODDED

If you did not make backs before you started read this:
You can get some original files from the Fable disks.
Go to My Computer, right click the drive that the disk is in,
click Explore, right click the zip file(Disk1C~1)[or 2,3,4].
You should be given the option to 'Extract to, now you need
to set it to extract to a folder in MyDocuments or somewhere.
Once this is done you can open the folder and find the file you
need. Highlight that file and copy it to the original location.
Which files are on which disk is here:
Disk 1
game.bin
names.bin
script.bin
text.big
Disk 2
finalalbion.wad
Disk 3
effects.big
graphics.big
Disk 4
textures.big
 

Archon'sRage

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Re: Making Back-ups

i made back ups for fable tlc, after i started modding XD, at some ponit half of the game's files were gone.
 

jwc2200

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Re: Making Back-ups

Archon'sRage;296082 said:
i made back ups for fable tlc, after i started modding XD, at some ponit half of the game's files were gone.

Check the second spoiler tag to see how to get files off the disks.
 

OldBoy

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Re: Making Back-ups

Nice. Skotekal also wrote a little how-to a while back.
Good to show people how to get the files from the disk.
 

Archon'sRage

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Re: Making Back-ups

jwc2200;296297 said:
Check the second spoiler tag to see how to get files off the disks.

well i have unistalled fable tlc in reason of my computer so low on space that i took it off to play other stuff
 

jwc2200

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Re: Making Back-ups

Archon'sRage;296594 said:
well i have unistalled fable tlc ... i took it off to play other stuff

That is a stoning offense where I come from, lol.
 

James Butts

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Re: Making Back-ups

I can't believe some people are stupid enough not to be able to make backups!!!!!!!!
 

Lord-Albion

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Re: Making Back-ups

than here you got one stupid person lol XD anyway this whas great it helped me :)
 

tonic

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hello.i'm new here,because i need help regarding backup. i just instal this game again,but it appear my previous modding files stuck in the program.
reinstalling the game don't return my game to be original again. what should i do?
thank you
 

VinDiesel

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hello.i'm new here,because i need help regarding backup. i just instal this game again,but it appear my previous modding files stuck in the program.
reinstalling the game don't return my game to be original again. what should i do?
thank you
Hey there tonic.

When you uninstall Fable: TLC, it will only remove unmodified files. So if you dumped the FinalAlbion.wad file and renamed it, all of those files need to be removed manually. If you edited anything with ChocolateBox or FableExplorer, those too will need to be manually deleted. Once you uninstall and delete any files left over, you are clear to reinstall. Just go to the install directory in your file explorer to delete them. By default, the directory is C:\Program Files (x86)\Fable - The Lost Chapters. If you do not have a Program Files (x86), then check the folder called Program Files.

If that doesn't work, you may want to check out your virtual store, located in C:\Users\%user%\AppData\Local\VirtualStore, where %user% is the name of the Windows account you're using. If you cannot find that folder, it is hidden, and viewing it will need to be enabled. In the file explorer, go to the view tab, and at the end select options. In the folder options window, select the view tab, and click the radio button for show hidden files, folders and drives, and deselect the tick box for hide protected operating system files. Click OK. Look at the virtual store, delete anything related to Fable. Uninstalling and reinstalling will not be necessary after this, but a new game profile might be.

I hope this helps.
 
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