Reformatting HDD. Need program to copy games

[VirtualDrone]

The title pretty much says it all. I am reformatting my hard drive, but i don't want to lose all the progress on my games. I need a program that can copy the game file over to a hard drive and then can copy it back after i am done reformatting, so it was like nothing happened. From what i understand you just can't copy and paste. Oh i need this to be free.

 

[Celegorm]

There is no way to just copy the game. What you would need to do is save the program file folders of the games you want to save to a DVD or CD. Then, after the reformat, and the games are reinstalled, over-write the program file folders with the stuff from the CDs/DVDs.

I'm not 100% that what I said will work, but it's probally your best bet.

 

[hascet]

From my experience that^ will work, I've done it with Enemy Territory and it worked like a charm.

 

[VirtualDrone]

you mean i have to reinstall the games? I don't want to lose my progress. What about Norton ghost?

 

[Dark Night]

There is no way to just copy the game. What you would need to do is save the program file folders of the games you want to save to a DVD or CD. Then, after the reformat, and the games are reinstalled, over-write the program file folders with the stuff from the CDs/DVDs.

I'm not 100% that what I said will work, but it's probally your best bet.

Pretty much it because there is no program like that.

 

[Celegorm]

you mean i have to reinstall the games? I don't want to lose my progress. What about Norton ghost?

If you use ghost, you would back up the entire copy of windows, making the reformat pointless.

You need to reinstall the programs because they need the registery keys that installing puts in. If you don't go though the install process, odds are, the programs won't work.

 

[VirtualDrone]

Okay let me get this straight. If i am going to reformat the only way to not lose all my games progress is to burn the current game folder onto a dvd, reformat, install the game, and then copy all the data from the dvd over the data i just installed.

Edit: Instead of using a dvd to copy the files could i use a hard drive instead?

 

[Rubber314Chicken]

yeah