There may be times when you will want to do a 'clean' install of your game to fix a problem but of course you might not want to abandon your Simmies, or spend countless hours downloading all that custom content over again! 

Before you uninstall your game its important to make sure you've got all the files you want to keep. On the left of this table is the folder location, on the right it shows what the files in that folder are. If those files sound important to you then make a copy of the contents of each folder somewhere safe on your computer, if you don't particularly care about a particular set of files then there is no need to keep them.

The default file path for your game contents is:

  - within that you'll find some or all of the following folders and folder contents:-

Un-Installing Your Game:-

Click Start - > Choose Control Panel - > Add/Remove Programs

Once the list has been generated, scroll through it until you find the most recent expansion pack, for some reason Maxis made these so that we have to remove one at a time in reverse order (newest first). Click on the Remove link and follow the on-screen instructions. It is recommended that you opt to remove saved games or other game files if prompted.

Repeat for the next EP and so on until you are left with The Sims 2. Repeat for The Sims 2. Your game is now uninstalled.

This is often where people can make a mess of things - although The Sims 2 is a lot better than its predecessor, it still gets a bit wobbly from time to time so reinstalling well is good practice!

DO NOT add your saved game files until the very end of re-installing!

Install your game, starting with the Sims 2 in the usual way (if you've forgotten how, check the instructions in your game manual). Next install the first EP, run the game, exit, add the next and so on for all the EP's you have - running the game in between installations gives the game the chance to initialize properly. Its not strictly necessary to install EP's in the order they were released, however it is quicker and less confusing!

Leaving out an EP is bad! Even if you hate it! If you had an EP installed previously which you were hoping to get rid of then I'm afraid to say that your back-up is very unlikely to work properly, your Sims and their houses will require stuff that was in that EP - not always obvious things like clothes or furniture, there are lots of subtle things which you're probably not aware of, that have changed them in a way that means they quite literally can't live without that EP. So even if you hate it, make sure you install it in its rightful place if you want your Sims back again! 

Once you have added all the expansion packs you have, run the game empty one last time. 

You will need to make sure your game has the correct number of neighbourhoods in it to support your back up. Your back up neighbourhood must either replace one that is already in the game or it must have a higher number than the existing neighbourhoods. 

After you're done prepping your game, you can now copy in all your back-up files, when prompted choose 'Yes to All' and if you've got custom furniture to add make sure you install a fresh copy of the latest CEP file. Run your game and you should find that everything is right where you expect it to be! If you had to make extra blank neighbourhoods you can delete those now and your game will tidy up the numbering of your imported hood for you.

If in doubt... leave it out

Of course it goes without saying that you only put your custom content back in if you are confident that it was all safe to use, if you are reinstalling because you think a custom object may be causing your game to crash then it may be best NOT to put those items in your game but to run it 'vanilla' - if you are not sure which item may have caused a problem then try adding smaller batches of 'trusted' objects back in. It may leave your Sims houses looking a bit messy for a while, as custom furniture, when removed, is usually replaced by a Maxis item of the same type, but it is better than having your game crashing again because a problem item is causing it to fall over.