Transferring Saved Games for Dummies

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I recently bought a new laptop. I would like to transfer some of my saved games from IWD2 and IWD over to play on my laptop.

Can somebody explain the process for doing so? Please use language suitable for the technologically ignorant.

If it makes a difference, the new laptop has Windows Vista and the old desktop had Windows XP.

 

First things first: Find where the game is installed. From My Computer that is usually at:
C\Program Files\Black Isle\Icewind Dale

When you get to the Icewind Dale folder simply copy the folder called 'mpsave' to a USB disk, or floppy, or zip it up and e-mail it to yourself.

If you need to zip the folder - right click on it - select 'send to' and the first option should say "Compressed (zipped) File" or something similar (long time since I did it!)

Copy this over to the laptop, and replace the existing mpsave folder.

If you have saves on your laptop already make sure you have a copy safe to put back, the method above will override any saves you have on your laptop already - as it is new I presume that you haven't played yet?

Hope that helps, need any more detail I'll come back and try to elaborate

 

Thanks for your help so far. I had already figured out that the mpsave folder contained my saved games, and I copied them to a flash drive.

But how do I copy them to my new laptop? You are correct; there are no saved games of IWD2 on the new computer (although there are some of Baldur's Gate 2).

Also, I assume the same procedure would apply to other games (IWD and BG1) I had previously started on my old computer. Would I have to have the exact same expansions installed in order for the saves to work? (Ex., I had both Heart of Winter and Trials of the Luremaster installed over IWD on my old computer.)

 

You would need the same setup to ensure the saves loaded and worked correctly, yes.

Same goes for all other IE games, except in the BG series mpsave and saves are the two separate folders.

To copy them onto the new laptop, install IWD with patches and expansions the same as your desktop, then simply copy the folder from the flash drive into the same directory you found it when you got it from the desktop. It should come up with a dialogue box asking to confirm overwriting the old mpsave folder. When you load up the game all your saves will simply be there on the load game page. No need to change anything else, just make sure they're there

 

Vista can be a real pain if your game is on the system hard drive so it's better to instal it on a different partition. If not just make sure to back up everything and check that your save shows up in game before deleting it from the device you use to transfer it.

Compatibility files with Vista can be a real pain if you're not careful but other than that it should be fine.

 

Got all my saved games for IWD2 loaded tonight. I probably won't play for awhile since I am in the middle of a run through BG2, but it was nice to check in on some old friends.

Thanks for your help, 8people and Caradhras

 

You're welcome. I lost my BG2 saves because I overlooked the compatibility files issue with Vista so I've learned this the hard way.