How would you feel if your Sims suddenly vanished? What if you really did have to reinstall your game? You need a back up!
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Go to My Documents/EA Games/The Sims 2
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Right click the Neighborhoods folder and zip it (exact wording in the context menu depends on which zip program you're using)
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Right click on the Downloads folder and zip it
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If you create custom content with BodyShop, right click and zip SavedSims and Projects too.
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Change the file names to have the date in them (such as 2010-06-01 Neighborhoods.zip)
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Use the right mouse button to drag the zips somewhere safe, such as another hard drive or partition or an external drive or burn them to a CD or DVD
If you have custom lights installed, you also need a back up of Program Files\EA GAMES\The Sims 2\TSData\Res\Lights.
If you have custom walls, fences, arches, arches, modular stairs, or fireplaces, also back up Program Files\EA GAMES\The Sims 2\TSData\Res\Catalog\Scripts\
Neighborhood Manager
You can also make Neighborhood backups using SimPE's Neighborhood Manager. That takes time and more disk space tho, because SimPE has to load and doesn't compress the files.