Upgraded to Windows 7 now I can't play my games :(

coolsouthern

coolsouthern

coolsouthern

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Right as title suggests I recieved and installed Windows 7 today. Prior to the install I moved all my game folders (including saves etc) over to my secondary drive.

Now I had also previously read that by doing this I would be able to simply move them back over after instaalling the new OS and use them as normal but this has not been the case.

When trying to open the games they tell me they have not been installed. A slap to the forehead later I am searching through the folders to find the installers. I find them but they do not run?

The games that I am having problems with are:

Mirror's Edge
Mass Effect
Burnout Paradise: The Ultimate Box Set

These are, coincidently (?), all from the EA website.

I reinstalled EA Download Manager and still cannot run anything. Checked my e-mails and I found the sales confirmation along with the product keys etc. I knew they would be useless without actually installing the games but of pure desperation gave it a go anyway :)

Could really do with some advice here as to fully delete them and redownload them would be hell. I am honestly not exagerating when I say it took me 3-5 days to download EACH GAME. Yes that is each game so up to 15 days just to download them all (thanks sky broadband / North Lincs Council / World!)

Thanks everyone! :)
 
There will be no registry entries for them so they mostly wont run. You mgiht find a .reg file in the install directories of the games that you could run. That should make that game work. If not you'll need to do a reinstall.

Thats assuming it was a clean install of windows you did?

Did you change from x32 to x64 or vice versa?
 
Did you delete the EA Dowloader cache? The installers are in there.

If you did, you need to log into your EA Download Manager account, and download the games again. This time, I'd change the EA-DM chache directory to somwhere on your second drive, then next time you reinstall Windows you won't lose the games.
 
Clum said:
There will be no registry entries for them so they mostly wont run. You mgiht find a .reg file in the install directories of the games that you could run. That should make that game work. If not you'll need to do a reinstall.



Thats assuming it was a clean install of windows you did?

Did you change from x32 to x64 or vice versa?
Click to expand...

I'll have a look later tonight I have to be out for a coule of hours. Cheers for the advice!

BTW it was from x64 Vista


uv said:
Did you delete the EA Dowloader cache? The installers are in there.

If you did, you need to log into your EA Download Manager account, and download the games again. This time, I'd change the EA-DM chache directory to somwhere on your second drive, then next time you reinstall Windows you won't lose the games.
Click to expand...

Just tried looking for this and couldn't find it so I assume I did delete it somehow. I'm annoyed at this as I actually copied my entire drives contents so not sure how that would have worked!

MY Microsoft Office now doesn't work aswell. Guess that means that I have to buy another 1 of them aswell.

I hate this. I know I'm not that proficiant with computers but FFS I researched this and read in numerous places that I would simply have to copy the contents of one hard drive to another then simply paste them back over!

Moan, moan, moan... anyway cheers for the advice I will get on with it when I get back!
 
When I reinstalled Dead Space from the EA downloaded it just worked fine with the product key. Didn't even need to have the download manager running! I copied all the installer files from the cache.
 
coolsouthern said:
Now I had also previously read that by doing this I would be able to simply move them back over after instaalling the new OS and use them as normal but this has not been the case.
Click to expand...

this is only the case for steam games :p


others need a registry entry, but you could reinstall them then copy your save games back into their respective folders.
 
Yes, I think it was a misunderstanding when people said you just need to move them over again once you had reinstalled, I am pretty sure they were referring to the cached install files. The actual installed games themselves would not work like that.
 
alexhull24 said:
When I reinstalled Dead Space from the EA downloaded it just worked fine with the product key. Didn't even need to have the download manager running! I copied all the installer files from the cache.
Click to expand...

The same should work with your copy of office. As long as you have the original instal discs and product key you should just be able to install them again without buying new copies.

PK!
 
Think I'm pretty much screwed here... UNLESS

I don't suppose its possible just to download the actual installer exe or have someone send it to me? Would be kind of sensible to do that rather than spend half a month downloading 20+ gb just to get the installers again?

Probably not possible I suppose... would be too sensible
 
If you deleted the EADM cache you need to redownload, theres no two ways about it.


Also as said, Office should just be reinstallable from the original disc.
 
EADM lets you specify where you download the files to, make sure everything is downloaded to a spare/backup drive, once downloaded you can simply install and when asked where to install, install wherever you want. Next time you reinstall windows for whatever reason, you've got all the installable content on a backup drive already, install EADM, point it to the backup directorys, restart it and it should find everything again.

Some games work without reinstalling, some don't its a bit of a crap shoot. Some games will need other things to work that it would normally install for you when you install the game, others might need securecom or something to work.

Go to a friends house, install EADM, log in to your account, download the files, burn them to dvd, take them home. You must know someone with a half decent connection, anyone with a 2-8mb or higher can probably get them all for you within a day, maybe a few hours.
 
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