I downloaded a pre-made neighbourhood and it won't show up

[Lemon&Lime]

I downloaded this neighbourhood complete with lots -

http://www.modthesims2.com/showthread.php?t=260726

And it isn't showing up in game.

Details: I downloaded the file and it was a .rar file of size 10,086 KB. I downloaded it into the downloads folder, then cut and pasted it into the Neighbourhoods folder. I renamed it (see the original name in the link above) to N514. The file is not a folder like the other neighbourhood files. I installed it manually (didn't use QX), and it isn't showing up in-game.

Can anyone help? The neighbourhood comes with a lot of houses but no Sims so I'm really eager to play!

[HystericalParoxysm]

You need to download two files for that to work: the custom content one which should have its contents placed in Downloads and the actual neighborhood one which goes in Neighborhoods. When you extract from the neighborhood rar it should create a new N514 folder for all of the contents under Neighborhoods - you should see N001, N002, N003, G001 (if you have Seasons), any custom neighborhoods you have, and N514 as folders. If it isn't creating a new folder it's possible your program you're using to unRAR it isn't set up to keep a directory structure. You don't want to rename anything, but just get it installed as intended.

If you are using WinRAR (which is most likely), when you open the RAR file and click "Extract To"...

Make sure the folder you're extracting to is: C:\Documents and Settings\(Your Windows Username)\My Documents\EA Games\The Sims 2\Neighborhoods

On the Advanced tab before you extract, make sure the option for "File Paths" is set to "Extract Full Paths." Then you can go in and make sure that folder was created correctly under Neighborhoods. In it you should also have subfolders for Lots, Characters, and Thumbnails (characters will be an empty folder). If you have further trouble you'll want to post on the download thread, since individual creators support their own work. :)

[n8h@wk]

I downloaded this neighbourhood complete with lots -

http://www.modthesims2.com/showthread.php?t=260726

And it isn't showing up in game.

Details: I downloaded the file and it was a .rar file of size 10,086 KB. I downloaded it into the downloads folder, then cut and pasted it into the Neighbourhoods folder. I renamed it (see the original name in the link above) to N514. The file is not a folder like the other neighbourhood files. I installed it manually (didn't use QX), and it isn't showing up in-game.

Can anyone help? The neighbourhood comes with a lot of houses but no Sims so I'm really eager to play!

I hope I'm understanding you right, but what I get from this post is that you didn't extract anything. What you did was download the rar file and rename it. That's why it's not working. You need to extract the neighborhood file into the neighborhoods folder and the custom content files into the downloads folder. If you don't know how to extract rar files I'm sure there are tutorials on here that give you ideas on the programs you'll need for that (Windows = WinRAR, Mac = UnRARX). It is a nice neighborhood. I downloaded it myself.

[Lemon&Lime]

Thanks for getting back to me so quickly. :)

The thing is, I don't have a RAR program like WinRAR on my computer, but Windows referred me to the website where you can download a free trial. As my dad is in charge of downloading stuff which isn't Sims downloads I'll have to wait until he gets back from work before I can see about downloading WinRAR and then I'll follow the rest of your instructions.

Thanks again! :)