Hello everyone!
I just noticed that there is no backup/transfer guide available in the forum so I'm going to change that.
I play the stand alone version with the launcher, I dont know if the paths are the same with steam. STEAM DOES NOT SAVE THESE FILES.
Why should you back up your commander?
Answer: there are files on your pc that contain the entire history of everything you ever did with that commander on that machine, including every star system you ever visited. These files are used by 3rd party tools like ed discovery, captains log etc. If you lose them they are gone forever. The 3rd party tools cannot save that data nor do sites like inara.cz or edsm do that.
I made a cmd to backup my logs and custom binds everytime after playing elite. It looks like this:
This will copy the files to my backup drive and the other backup drive (it grew to 2.8GB!).
You need to start the cmd as administrator: How to run programs as administrator in win10 (<- this is a link)
That was easy right...? Well not so fast.
There are *** in the code that contain a number or name, which is uniqe to your windows account. You entered it when you installed win10 or if you made a user profile.
The AppData folder is a hidden folder, you need to activate it in the explorer options otherwise you cant figure out the path.
There are two folders: Frontier Developments and Frontier_Developments. Both are important!
Can you see the bold number? Thats a placeholder for a unique number of your commander. If you had beta versions installed there are several folders with numbers, you need to find the one that contains your actual cmdr history! Its simple: look for last change date.
If you want to learn about the /D /H /O and /Y parameters for xcopy you can read about it at microsoft (<- link). The cmd checks if files are there and if so they are either not or defenitly overwritten.
One thing that is not visible in the cmd is the VisitedStarsCache.dat file. It contains every system you ever visited which makes it blue on the galaxy map. If you lose that file you have red stars everywhere and start this file anew. There were ways to import stars into that file but that option is no longer available, you can only copy existing files. You should never lose this file!
Transfering the commander to a new pc
Install and start the game anew, but dont load it. Main menu is enough then exit it.
Now copy the files into the respective folders. Sometimes they dont exist yet so you have to create them. You need to do this with custom binds as well!
Start the game and the 3rd party tools and its like you never changed anything.
PS: There are 3rd party tools that have their own database. You can backup and copy them as well. Ask the dev about this.
I just noticed that there is no backup/transfer guide available in the forum so I'm going to change that.
I play the stand alone version with the launcher, I dont know if the paths are the same with steam. STEAM DOES NOT SAVE THESE FILES.
Why should you back up your commander?
Answer: there are files on your pc that contain the entire history of everything you ever did with that commander on that machine, including every star system you ever visited. These files are used by 3rd party tools like ed discovery, captains log etc. If you lose them they are gone forever. The 3rd party tools cannot save that data nor do sites like inara.cz or edsm do that.
I made a cmd to backup my logs and custom binds everytime after playing elite. It looks like this:
Code:
@echo on
taskkill /IM fraps.exe /f /t
taskkill /IM EDDiscovery.exe /f
taskkill /IM EDMarketConnector.exe /f
taskkill /IM EDLaunch.exe /f
timeout 2
xcopy "C:\Users\***\AppData\Local\Frontier_Developments\Products\elite-dangerous-64\Logs\*.log" "D:\Elite Dangerous\elite-dangerous-64\Logs" /D /Y /V
xcopy "C:\Users\***\AppData\Local\Frontier_Developments\Products\elite-dangerous-odyssey-64\Logs\*.log" "D:\Elite Dangerous\elite-dangerous-odyssey-64\Logs" /D /Y /V
xcopy "C:\Users\***\AppData\Local\Frontier Developments\Elite Dangerous\123456789\*.*" "D:\Elite Dangerous\ImportedStars" /H /O /Y /V
xcopy "C:\Users\***\AppData\Local\Frontier Developments\Elite Dangerous\CommanderHistory\*.*" "D:\Elite Dangerous\CommanderHistory" /H /O /Y /V
xcopy "C:\Users\***\Saved Games\Frontier Developments\Elite Dangerous\*.log" "D:\Elite Dangerous\Journal" /D /V
xcopy "C:\Users\***\Saved Games\Frontier Developments\Elite Dangerous\*.json" "D:\Elite Dangerous\Journal" /H /O /Y /V
xcopy "C:\Users\***\AppData\Local\Frontier Developments\Elite Dangerous\Options\Bindings\*.*" "D:\Elite Dangerous\Binds" /D /O /Y /V
timeout 2
xcopy "D:\Elite Dangerous\*" "E:\Elite Dangerous\" /S /E /C /H /O /R /Y /D /V
xcopy "D:\Elite Dangerous\ImportedStars\*.*" "E:\Elite Dangerous\ImportedStars" /H /O /Y /V
xcopy "D:\Elite Dangerous\CommanderHistory\*.**" "E:\Elite Dangerous\CommanderHistory" /H /O /Y /V
xcopy "D:\Elite Dangerous\Journal\*.json" "E:\Elite Dangerous\Journal" /H /O /Y /V
pauseThis will copy the files to my backup drive and the other backup drive (it grew to 2.8GB!).
You need to start the cmd as administrator: How to run programs as administrator in win10 (<- this is a link)
That was easy right...? Well not so fast.
There are *** in the code that contain a number or name, which is uniqe to your windows account. You entered it when you installed win10 or if you made a user profile.
The AppData folder is a hidden folder, you need to activate it in the explorer options otherwise you cant figure out the path.
There are two folders: Frontier Developments and Frontier_Developments. Both are important!
Can you see the bold number? Thats a placeholder for a unique number of your commander. If you had beta versions installed there are several folders with numbers, you need to find the one that contains your actual cmdr history! Its simple: look for last change date.
If you want to learn about the /D /H /O and /Y parameters for xcopy you can read about it at microsoft (<- link). The cmd checks if files are there and if so they are either not or defenitly overwritten.
One thing that is not visible in the cmd is the VisitedStarsCache.dat file. It contains every system you ever visited which makes it blue on the galaxy map. If you lose that file you have red stars everywhere and start this file anew. There were ways to import stars into that file but that option is no longer available, you can only copy existing files. You should never lose this file!
Transfering the commander to a new pc
Install and start the game anew, but dont load it. Main menu is enough then exit it.
Now copy the files into the respective folders. Sometimes they dont exist yet so you have to create them. You need to do this with custom binds as well!
Start the game and the 3rd party tools and its like you never changed anything.
PS: There are 3rd party tools that have their own database. You can backup and copy them as well. Ask the dev about this.
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