Save Library Names/Artwork

[Rowan88]

I have my Launchbox all nice and organised with artwork and games renamed to their correct ID's.

I need to reformat my PC though and do a fresh install of windows 10.

Is there any way I can save this so when I reinstall launchbox I don't have to manually add and edit all the stuff again?

Thanks

[SentaiBrad]

You don't have to re-install LaunchBox. As long as the file paths stay the same, or your LaunchBox install, games and emulators are all on the same drive, then they're using a relative path and the drive letter doesn't mean anything. So I have all of my stuff all on one 8TB drive. If i need to move that drive, or re-install the OS, it doesn't matter what drive letter it was before, it'll all still work.

If you have roms on another drive, then there are two methods. After the re-install, figure out what drive everything is now on, Open up all of the Platform XML's in notepad++, search for the old drive letter (like "D:\") and then replace all, in all open documents with the new drive letter (like "F:\). Or, you can delete the games and then re-import them afterwards and use the uncheck all buttons on the media download pages to not download any associated media. All of the media you have in your LB install will automatically re-attach. The second one will take a bit more time, but go faster because it doesn't have to download anything.

It all just depends on how your install is set up.

[Rowan88]

Thanks for reply..

I have all my emulators and roms/iso on my external drive but I had Launchbox installed on my OS SSD.

So looks like I will need to reinstall LB and use the XML method.. i did make a copy of the backups folder just incase.

[SentaiBrad]

Just move your LaunchBox install to another directory, and then move it back to where you want. It's still completely portable, you'll just need to either edit the drive letter in Notepad++ later, or make sure your roms and emulators end up on the same drive letter. You can change drive letters in Disk Management. you generally don't want to do that for systems you've been working on, but for a brand new Install, that should be fine too.

[Rowan88]

Thanks,

Whenever I do my fresh install I have my OS on C:\ and my STORAGE is always Z:|, even if I have to manually change it just after fresh install.

So I will install Launchbox on C:\ then copy the backup folder files to the new launchbox and it should all be like I never reformatted?

 

UPDATE:

 

Ok I installed Launchbox again, then I copied all the stuff that was in my Backup folder back into new Launchbox folders. When I open it nothings shows. I went into Backups, looked for newest file which was a WiiU one, renamed to Launchbox.xml and moved to root.

Now it shows my Wii U category and the games I had installed, but the artwork is not there. Does that mean I need to manually add it all in again?

Do I also need to rename all the category files to Launchbox and move in one by one?

Edited May 5, 2017 by Rowan88

[SentaiBrad]

You didn't even need to install LaunchBox again, just move the old install to the same location it was previously, or even to a new location.

[DOS76]

if you only backed up your backup folder to another drive and you reformatted your drive you will only be able to recover certain things all your images manuals music and videos will be gone. You should have copied the entire folder to another drive did your reformat and copied it back. The backups really only save your LB data stuff.

[Rowan88]

Ah shit, I see lol..

 

I didn't realise LB doesn't install it just extracts.. I have just extracted it onto the same drive as my Storage from now on with the Roms/Emulators in the folder with it.. So I can just transfer it about as easy as that, I just need to make sure the drive letter is always Z:\

 

Thanks for the help.

[SentaiBrad]

If everything is on the same drive then it'll use relative paths and you wont even need to make sure it's all on Z anymore. Going forward, leaving it all there will be best, but yea, the entire LaunchBox folder needed to move.