Booted while saving

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Have a problem in Icewind Dale II.. Whenever I save ( Quick save or normal save ) I get this message,


If I click save, it won't. Instead it will delete the folder where I saved it to

Any ideas on how this can be helped?

Greetings,
Filip

 

Did the game used to work or is this your first attempt to play? If it used to work, have you played it before downgrading to Windows 11 or is this the first time you've played since downgrading to Windows 11?
That could be important. I'm going to assume that this is your first time trying to play the game.

If this was XP or 2000 I'd say you don't have permission to write to the save game folder. Windows Vista or later should use a "virtual store" in your appdata folder to prevent that.
If it was Win9x I'd say the folders are locked/read only. This could still be the case.

First of all, where is IWD2 installed? Is it in Cprogram files\ (32-bit Windows) or cprogram files (x86)\ (64-bit Windows)? Or is it in something like CGOG Games\ ?
If it is in Program Files then you might want to try creating a new folder in C called "Games" and try installing it there.

However, let's check the quickest and easiest solution first.

Possibility #1: You're out of disk space.
Today where you pretty much need to have at least a dozen gigabytes of free hard drive space to run Windows it probably isn't the case, but you might want to check to see if you are out of disk space. For absolutely best performance it is recommended to have at least 50gb free, but you generally only need 1GB more than your computer has memory free. This error should only happen if the HD is completely filled up, but it can happen if you have less HD space free than the computer has RAM due to the way the page file works. The disk being full can easily prevent the game from creating a saved game. So open Windows Explorer, click on "This PC" on the left-hand side, and look at your hard drive. Does it say it has about as much or less free space than your computer has RAM? See if you can throw out a gigabyte or ten and try again. I'd recommend first emptying the trash, then running "disk cleanup" (found under Windows Administrative tools in Win 10 or 11, Accessories->system tools under 7 or earlier)
A note for Win10 users, make sure you do NOT check to delete your downloads folder (this was removed in an update last year, so you shouldn't see it, but if you do, uncheck it, then make sure to run Windows update once you have 50gb free HD space since you probably couldn't install the "cumulative update" due to lack of disk space. This only applies to Win10 users).
Look at the checkboxes and see what you can get rid of. "Windows Update Cleanup" is usually a good choice. The "setup log files" would normally be a good thing to get rid of, but not when you are troubleshooting. Temporary internet files and temporary files is a good once. You should clear the error reports when you finish troubleshooting, but not now. Normally when troubleshooting I would say not to delete the device drivers, but in this specific case I doubt rolling back drivers would help.
If this doesn't free enough space, look around your HD for stuff you can throw out, then empty the recycle bin.
If you were low on HD space, once you have some free space, try the game again.

next easiest possibility: The save game folders are read-only.
Log in as the administrator.
Locate your Icewind Dale II folder and right-click on it and get properties. Check to see if it is read-only. If it is uncheck it. Then repeat this for the save game folders inside as well as the .INI files inside. You might need to repeat this for the contents of the save game folders as well.
If it is installed to \program files or \program files (x86) you might need to repeat this in the Virtual Store. Paste this into Explorer: %LOCALAPPDATA%\VirtualStore to find the Virtual Store. Yes, I know it's a pain, but you often have to change both the base files and the "virtualized" files.
Now give the game a whirl.

Next:
Where is IWD2 installed? Is it in Cprogram files\ (32-bit Windows) or cprogram files (x86)\ (64-bit Windows)? Or is it in something like CGOG Games\ ?
If it is in Program Files then you might want to try creating a new folder in C called "Games". Right click on the new folder and make sure that the "Users" group has "Read & Execute" permissions. Then try reinstalling IWD2 there. You might want to copy your characters and saved games some place like the documents folder until the re-installation is complete.

 

Hello Slick,


It’s a new gamecomputer and I bought the game again that’s playable on this one. My older version wasn’t indeed not compatible with this new Windows. I checked CanIrunit before buying and it ticked all the boxes so space shouldn’t be the problem. You’re third option seems the best one although I couldn’t locate the game yet. It’s just showing under apps but I’ll try to find that out.


Thanks heaps for the helpful and detailled information! I’ll find it this way



Greatfull me!

 

I just remembered another possibility. Quatas. You might want to check the quotas for whatever account you use to play the game. It would be the same as running out of disk space if you exceed your disk space quota. If it's turned off, then that's not the problem.
https://www.windowscentral.com/how-configure-disk-quota-windows-10

Anyways, I can't really help you with anything but the 15 year old CD-ROM version of Icewind Dale II. I haven't really tried to run it on anything newer than my 22-year old Windows 98SE/XP dual-boot computer either.
However, it would help if you listed the following for me or others to diagnose things:

1. What version of the game do you have. Both the program version number and what patches/mods you had, and was it from a CD or the GoG version. I'm not sure if there are any other editions out there or not, and I can primarily help with the CD version but only make educated guesses with the GoG version.
   
2. What version of Windows are you running. I can see from the picture it is Windows 11, but is it 32 or 64 bit and is it Home, Pro, or Enterprise?
3. Where is the game installed?
4. Normally a troubleshooter would ask about hardware information, but that doesn't seem important for your particular problem given that any computer made in the last 20 years (counting from 2002) should have the specs to handle the game and you aren't having graphics card compatibility issues. The only other hardware-related issue it might be is a bad hard drive or being out of disk space.

Typing the above makes me want to include one other suggestion for completeness. Schedule CHKDSK to scan your hard drive the next time you reboot to make sure the error was not caused by a failing hard drive.
Note that you don't want to do this until you aren't going to be using the computer for at least half an hour, as the scan can take 45 minutes or more. Wait until you don't need the computer for a bit, then schedule the scan and immediately reboot so the computer gets right on it.
Here's a website with complete instructions:
https://windowsloop.com/schedule-chkdsk-windows-10/
Here's the short version:

1. start to type "cmd" into the search box, then right click on "command prompt" and "run as administrator". Elevate with UAC as necessary.
2. From the command prompt, type "chkdsk /x /f /r" without the quotes.
3. Close all open applications and reboot the computer. Chkdsk should check your hard drive. Expect it to take 30-45 minutes, possibly more so wait until you don't need the computer for an hour (like when you're eating dinner and doing the dishes or going to the grocery store) before doing this.

As for locating the game, An easy way to find out is to find the game in the START menu, right click on it and choose "open file location".
That should open something like Cprogramdata\microsoft\windows\start menu\programs\* (NOT sure what comes in place of the star, so I used a wildcard)
Find the shortcut to the game in the resulting window, and again right click and "Open file location".
That should bring up the location of the game.

on my Win98SE/XP computer it's in Cprogram files\Black Isle\Icewind Dale II\
On 64-bit Windows it's on CProgram Files (x86)\Black Isle\Icewind Dale II
The GoG version could be in two places:
CGOG Games\Icewind Dale II
CProgram Files (x86)\GoG.com\Icwind Dale II

Note that 32-bit programs on 64-bit Windows get stored in "Program Files (x86)" instead of "Program Files". Personally I think Microsoft should have gone with leaving Program Files alone for 32-bit programs and making a "Program Files (wow64)" for 64-bit instead of the other way around, but that would have caused fewer problems for legacy applications and discouraged app developers from having to update their apps.

 

If the game is installed under C:\Program Files\, uninstall it and, when reinstalling, manually select a more appropriate folder like C:\Games\IWD2 or better yet, a completely different partition/drive (e.g. D:\Games\IWD2).

Original Infinity Engine games are old and come from a time when installing files to Program Files was the norm, as was making save files directly into the game folder. On newer Windows operating systems, that's no longer possible (or it is, technically, but it complicates things).

 

@Sopor Aeternus, did you get the problem solved or do you need more help?