Guild Wars 2

Hi guys,

Just wondering if there is a way to “backup” all the files (or some) to save time from having to download all of the Guild Wars 2 content again when doing a clean install of Windows 10 when it’s available.

Interested to know if there are any directories or files that can be transferred to an external drive to save some time – otherwise I’m going to dread that huge download/install.

Thanks

You can just copy the whole folder. This applies to every online games and most game that i know. If you want to remove all in your old hdd, remember to copy GW2 screenshot from “My Documents”. All installing did that is different from copy paste, is that it register the application in Windows Registry so some other application can recognize it without having user to manually point to it. You can also install GW2 on your new windows without downloading the whole game (or close when download start), then paste your backup to your new installed GW2, and start repairing GW2 (if you’re paranoid) or just run it directly.

GW2 is basically just two or three files. The main file is the gw2.dat its around 20GB and contains all of the games files within it – you’d have to back that one up. The other important file is the gw2.exe which is just a couple of mb’s so you may as well copy that as well. Anything else isn’t important (there will most likely be a gw2.log in there)

From a perspective of Windows Insider, you really won’t be needing to perform a clean installation of Windows 10. The upgrade process works amazing and pain free.

I agree the gw2.dat file is the tough one. I tried to move via flash drive to wifes laptop last year, had to use WinRAR or 7zip to cut the huge file into smaller pieces because win XP and vista was not able to move then entire file to a flashdrive. This was not because flashdrive didn’t have the capacity, earlier versions of windows have a cap on file size capacity on flash drive. I think it I had to make the files under 2 or 4 gigs? I don’t think this is an issue on win 8.1 and for sure is not an issue on win 10 (dunno about win 7).

Depending on what your upgrading from, you MAY have to do a clean install, despite what gothicus says. If your on xp or vista you WILL have to do clean install. From win 7 or win 8.1 you won’t “need” to, personally, I will be doing clean install.
I have a HDD I am using now for storage that I’ll move important files onto, and then once official release of win 10 I’ll do fresh install on the SSD, then move the gw2 folder back to the SSD.

Remember whichever way you do, DO backup your important stuff before you upgrade/install (pictures, teamspeak identity, browser url’s, whatever) I had the luxury of flashdrive transfer for some of these things from old system when I put win10 beta on this system in December…I’d have been very lost if I had not.

The problem was mostly that your flashdrive was formated with FAT-32 instead of NTFS

Chant.6915:

I agree the gw2.dat file is the tough one. I tried to move via flash drive to wifes laptop last year, had to use WinRAR or 7zip to cut the huge file into smaller pieces because win XP and vista was not able to move then entire file to a flashdrive. This was not because flashdrive didn’t have the capacity, earlier versions of windows have a cap on file size capacity on flash drive. I think it I had to make the files under 2 or 4 gigs? I don’t think this is an issue on win 8.1 and for sure is not an issue on win 10 (dunno about win 7).

Depending on what your upgrading from, you MAY have to do a clean install, despite what gothicus says. If your on xp or vista you WILL have to do clean install. From win 7 or win 8.1 you won’t “need” to, personally, I will be doing clean install.
I have a HDD I am using now for storage that I’ll move important files onto, and then once official release of win 10 I’ll do fresh install on the SSD, then move the gw2 folder back to the SSD.

Remember whichever way you do, DO backup your important stuff before you upgrade/install (pictures, teamspeak identity, browser url’s, whatever) I had the luxury of flashdrive transfer for some of these things from old system when I put win10 beta on this system in December…I’d have been very lost if I had not.

It’s nothing to do with your version of windows. It is based on the format of the USB that you’re transferring the file to. A lot of USB’s come in FAT32 format, which has a maximum of 4GB per file. You can store more than 4GB on those USB’s, provided they are different files. a 4.2GB file won’t fit on a USB that is formatted FAT32.

You need to format your USB as either ExFAT or NFTS (or HFS+ but that will only work on macs) in order to put a file that is more than 4GB on it.