I'm installing a new OS today, but I'm really pleased with my character in Oblivion, and I want to keep him and his progress. Anyway to save pertinent files to one of my external hard drives before wiping my system? I'd love it if I could reinstall it, and have it recognize my saved games...

Hi, magicstop.
First you open the console and type
Save " your character name here"
this will warrant a save with its name, easy to find. So you can even backup this file to be at the sure side ever.

Yet yo can try this good utility I use and found very good.
Next you get this character manager that can be launched by the former. This one will make so many folders as characters you create (the char name, not the save name) and so, when you want to play with certain char all saves will be related to it, even the automatic and quick ones.

That OBSE launcher can launch Oblivion with and without OBSE, OBMM, and activate/deactivate plugins among other things.

hope this helped.

Edit: of course you want to keep a list of all mods you use now, so to reinstall then and so don't break the char.

That is entirely too complicated.

Go to My Documents > My Games > Oblivion > Saves, highlight the save(s) you want, right-click and copy them. Go to your external hard drive and paste the file(s) there. Nothing else is required.

If you have mods, then you can do the same thing to your Data folder. Just keep in mind the Data folder is really big.

After your system is up and running, reinstall the game and put the files back in the right places.

That's it.

Yes, but the way indicated above is meant to have several characters at once, and easy way to know what save is for what char.

There is only one character per save file, and by default, that file is named in the Save folder with the name of the character, their current location in-game, their level, hours played and the number of that file as it appear in the load menu. The only way to make it easier would be to make the icon a thumbnail of the character.
If you have two or more characters in one save file, your game is severely screwed up.

No need to make this an issue, but the idea is not having several characters at the same file.
The first, saving from console is to give the ess a significant name.
the other is having several folders inside the /save. The utility points the Oblivion.ini to the 'active character' folder.

As to identify the ess in game or utility is OK. but just seeing the ESS is troublesome to say to whom it pertains.

To say honest I don't use the menu save feature for a long time now. And I use the ringed saves from streamline often, and without Chararacter manager, this would superpose and delete between then a lot.

I appreciate the info, guys! I wound up just copying the save file I wanted to continue with onto the external hard drive. I've got XP up and rolling now, so Oblivion will be up and running soon. I appreciate the responses.

Don't forget to put your mods back or you'll get the "missing content" error.



In Oblivion, there are often several ways to accomplish a task, from certain play-styles things can seem wrong even if they do accomplish the mission. Let's agree that we have different methods, both correct for our own style. Truce?