Okay, so I've been having some problems with my computer and I will be buying a new one and selling my old one. So we all know what that means. I have to transfer my game *gulp*.I've read the instructions and I'm afraid. It seems to simple and I know people have lost their entire game. This isn't really a help thread so much as a support thread. I don't want to do it. I could just keep playing with my crappy graphics and limited memory. I don't want to loose my sims in the transfer...

How about making a backup on the old PC or maybe on an extrenal harddrive, so everything isn't lost in case something goes wrong in the transfer?

If you can help it, don't sell your old one till you get the new one. That way you'll know if you got the save data transfered correctly.

Grats on the new computer! I too will be going through what you are going through, but not soon enough (I think my current PC can limp on for a couple more months at least). I regularly make backups of all things sims, so when I've either reformatted the hard drive or transferred saved games between computers, I've had no problems. Just double check to make sure you've backed EVERYTHING up that you want to keep, downloads...neighborhoods...even configuration settings can be saved. One thing I would suggest, just in case, is to extract any in-game sims that you want to keep, just in case the neighborhood does get borked in the transfer (which it shouldn't...but you never know). Package them up after extracting them with SimPE, and they are yours forever.

You'll be fine!

I probably still have my old 'hoods on my old computer, which got fried. I simply started over again on my new one. LOL

Very helpful, but I can't get SimPE to run on my computer it always open to windows media player. I downloaded .NET,but still no luck.

I've never used SimPE to extract sims, but here's what I've done in the past. First I create a very basic, small lot (sometimes not even anything but empty land). I move all the sims I want to save onto that lot (sometimes I have to manually edit the config file to allow for enough sims on the lot). Then from the neighborhood map I package the lot to a file. That way they still keep the relationships with each other and I can move them all out later in a new game.

Speaking of which, I should go and check out some of my old games and extract my long lost sims... lol

What you can do, if you have one-is burn every single game and piece of CC onto DVD or CD-as they are right now. By everything, I mean that, exactly. Entire game, with all the neighborhoods, sims, content, the works.
Do it while you still have an active game, and you can save nearly everything without a problem. If you don't have a DVD burner, or CD burner, you can transfer the entire contents of the game into an external drive, if you have one. (Sorry, didn't read the post above me saying essentially the same thing about external drives).
I know about losing the game completely-I did exactly that, and my husband had to clone the contents of the old drive into a newer computer-it can be done, but it is rather a challenge if you don't have a bigger, better computer to do it with.
(I also learned the lesson above-always make backup copies of everything, even in triplicate because you never know what's going to happen. Mr. Murphy wrote the law on this.
Good luck on whatever you do. It isn't going to be as bad as you think if you can take the steps we have all offered.

But then again, it can really be fun and exciting to start all over with your new computer. Then you can organize things better, do things differently with your sims and not make some of the same mistakes.

Starting over doesn't have to be a chore to be avoided. But if you want to continue the game, just make sure you create backups of the entire TS2 folder, and you will not have any problems. You can even make a backup of your TS2 folder, but start over with a new Downloads folder. Or keep all your Downloads and your custom neighborhoods, and start fresh with the pre-made hoods. (if you play any of the pre-made sims/neighborhoods.)

As others have suggested, the less tedious option is usually to make a backup of your game onto an external hard drive. Then you connect the hard drive to the new computer and move the game folder en masse to the hard drive of the new computer.

What I've done is copied: The Sims2 Double Deluxe folder onto an external hard drive and simply plan to paste it onto the new computer once I get the games installed. Is there anything else I should copy?

Also can I just uninstall the game on my old PC and reinstall it on the new PC or would I have to call EAmaxis or something first?

Unless you have a totally different copy, you don't have to uninstall or call anyone. I've installed Sims2 several times (due to reformatting, new computers/laptops/etc) and never had to uninstall first or anything.

the easiest thing ive found (ive just transferred all the saved files my self not to long ago onto my new computer lol) is to just create a Sims 2 backup folder that has a copy of your EA folder in the my document folder on your old computer onto a flash drive or external hard drive. then, do a clean install of all the games, in order, onto your new computer. after that just pop your flash drive/external hard drive into your new computer, copy the EA folder from there to the newly created one in your new my documents folder and voila it should work perfectly fine like before. hope this helps, many blessings and happy siming! :D

Thanks for the suggestions and the support. The transfer was done today and it appears to be successful. I''m checking on my houses to see if anyone or anything is amiss and everything seems to be in order. It looks like I may have lost a few pieces of CC, but all my hacks and mods seem to have made it as well, so I am very happy.

Oh and the new PC has a graphics card rather than that stupid graphics chip my game looks so awesome now.

I changed over to a new machine w/Windows 7 (from one w/XP), and did the above steps.
When I did though, all the pre-existing neighborhoods went back to their original defaults. My custom neighborhoods were all ok, but in the EA ones, only the custom houses in my lots & houses bin were still intact.

Maybe you should put all your custom households & businesses into the bin before you back it up. However they will lose their relationships with other sims if you do.

Also remember to re-enable CC in your Options, when you first start the game on the new machine, so your CC will show.

Oh! I see you've already done it all , & it worked ok for you...YAY!

As other have already said, the only files you really need to backup and save are the ones found under My Documents\EA Games This is where your Sims, their houses and their neighbourhood are stored. You can copy this EA Games folder in a flash drive or a CD/DVD and then, once you have got your new PC and installed the new OS and all TS2 game and expansion packs (plus the respective official patches), you will need to run the game once to let it generate new userdata files. Then exit the game, check under My Documents or Library\Documents, if you install Win 7, find the newly created EA Games folder and replace it with the one from your old computer. This is how I moved my Sims from my old PC (Win XP) to the new one (with Win 7), and there was no problem at all. Nothing was lost. I just picked up the game from where I had left it.

weird mine were all ok. nothing like that happened to me... hmmm