World of Warcraft backup question

[Ranulf]

Anyone know of a way to backup the four cds version of the game to a single dvd?

 

[Yanagi]

I'll check the cds when I get home. If the paths&files are not colliding, or multiple files have the same name it should be allright. I too wish they could release a DvD version. Heck I would even trade my 4 cds in and pay 15 dollars extra för a DVD version.

 

[WobbleWobble]

The Collectors Edition came on one DVD.

 

[crizzar]

you can backup the game directory folder directly to DVD so as to not have to install it ever again... just copy it over. Also means no having to update if you ever reinstall

 

[Malladine]

Originally posted by: crizzar
you can backup the game directory folder directly to DVD so as to not have to install it ever again... just copy it over. Also means no having to update if you ever reinstall

What about registry entries?

 

[crizzar]

there are none (at least none of consequence); it functions much the same ways as Mac apps, UT, and EQ do, the only thing that doesn't happen is creating the program group but you can just create a shortcut to the exe and put it on your desktop/quicklaunch.

I keep WoW on a completely different drive so that in the several times I've had to reformat in the last 6 months (too much playing around on my part), WoW (and UT) have stayed 100% intact and playable.

Also, when I wanted to put WoW on my laptop for travelling, I just copied the directory over the network. Of course I had to change the video settings since those got carried over as well, but after that, it ran flawlessly.

 

[Kev]

Originally posted by: Yanagi
I'll check the cds when I get home. If the paths&files are not colliding, or multiple files have the same name it should be allright. I too wish they could release a DvD version. Heck I would even trade my 4 cds in and pay 15 dollars extra för a DVD version.

Does it take THAT much extra time to swap a CD? Jeez...

 

[Genx87]

Try to find the test client. It is a single file and all you need to do is install the patches over it.

 

[CuriousMike]

This isn't the free way to do it, but it's what happened to me.

I finally succumbed, and bought PC Gamer and go the DVD with the 14-day demo.

I installed it, like the game, and recently bought it @Best Buy on sale.

So, I've got the 4-5 CD's, but I just slipped the PC Gamer DVD in the box so it's an easier install for the future.

 

[bcterps]

There is a way to do it, in fact it was posted by a CM on the WoW boards a while back in the tech support forum. I don't remember it off hand, but basically you just copy all of the cab files (not sure if they are cab or mpq or whatever) into the same directory and keep the same directory structure as the first cd and burn it all to dvd.

 

[Ranulf]

Cool, thanks for the info guys. I'll try burning a dvd of it.

 

[Concillian]

Originally posted by: crizzar
there are none (at least none of consequence); it functions much the same ways as Mac apps, UT, and EQ do, the only thing that doesn't happen is creating the program group but you can just create a shortcut to the exe and put it on your desktop/quicklaunch.

I keep WoW on a completely different drive so that in the several times I've had to reformat in the last 6 months (too much playing around on my part), WoW (and UT) have stayed 100% intact and playable.

Yeah, I did this too. I installed wow to my fileserver network drive. I wanted to try WoW on my backup computer (2800+ / x800Pro vs. the 3000+ / 7800GT on my main machine). I just navigated to my network games directory and double clicked WoW. No install necessary. Only thing is the screen res and settings are tied to the directory so I had to make some changes there since that machine has an LCD that tops out at 1280x instead of the 1600x I use on my main machine.

Very portable compared to many other programs.

 

[Ranulf]

Good to know you can just copy it over and it works fine. I'll use that in the future for my laptop. I wary of doing that now because my current drive has already corrupted 1 file that I was able to fix with the WoW repair tool but I don't trust it so I want a fresh install on the new hd.

As for the dvd, I just copied all the files into a temp directory from the cds. Keep things the same as disc 1 and dont overwrite any files if asked when copying in discs 2-4. Then name the disc WoWarcraft_DVD when you burn the dvd. Seems to work like a charm but I've not installed from it yet. Anyone remember how long it took to install the game for them? From 4cds it took 45mins on both the desktop and laptop.

 

[Zerohm]

Originally posted by: Kev

Originally posted by: Yanagi
I'll check the cds when I get home. If the paths&files are not colliding, or multiple files have the same name it should be allright. I too wish they could release a DvD version. Heck I would even trade my 4 cds in and pay 15 dollars extra för a DVD version.

Does it take THAT much extra time to swap a CD? Jeez...

If you have an early version of the game like I do, copying the disc images, installing, downloading the 250 MB update, and patching can take a couple of hours.

So crizzar, I can just burn C:\program files\World of Warcraft to a DVD, then if I ever need to format C: just copy that folder back to my new windows install?

 

[crizzar]

Yep

 

[Concillian]

Originally posted by: Zerohm

If you have an early version of the game like I do, copying the disc images, installing, downloading the 250 MB update, and patching can take a couple of hours.

So crizzar, I can just burn C:\program files\World of Warcraft to a DVD, then if I ever need to format C: just copy that folder back to my new windows install?

The only problem with this is that after 2 patches, the DVD is partly useless. My experience is that if you are more than one incremental patch away from current patch, it'll download the '1.0 --> current rev' gigantic patch over Blizzard Updater.

So if your intention is to avoid this, then you have to keep up to date with versions.

You would still have the quick install of being able to just copy straight from DVD to hard drive, but the slow part is the patch updating.

 

[mOeeOm]

Originally posted by: Ranulf
Anyone know of a way to backup the four cds version of the game to a single dvd?

Is it 4?

I bought the game a week ago and it was 5 discs, did they change it or something?

 

[crizzar]

probably, there's been over 500mb of patches

 

[Zerohm]

Hmmm, thanks. So I guess copying the game folder is only useful if you burn with the latest patch.

Seeing as how the discs are a formality anyway, Blizz should offer an updated DVD image download or $5 mail-in or something for people that already have accounts. Reinstalling is really becoming a huge pain in the arse.

 

[UlricT]

download the free trial from fileplanet... use that to install. (did it last week)

 

[Yanagi]

What I do is I keep all the patches in one directory and after an install I just install the patches without downloading them. Except if there was a new patch. All the patches downloaded are saved in the WoW folder so just copy them somewhere else when youre uninstalling/formatting.

 

[CKent]

Why not just make .iso images of each CD and burn them to a DVD? With mounting software such as Daemon Tools it'd be no problem to copy the images over to a hard disk and install from there if & when you need to. I don't worry about patches, as I have a 10mbit connection (e-peen ++), but there should be room left on the DVD for them if you want to add them to it as well.

 

[cherrytwist]

download the free trial from fileplanet... use that to install. (did it last week)

 

[TheVrolok]

Originally posted by: crizzar
you can backup the game directory folder directly to DVD so as to not have to install it ever again... just copy it over. Also means no having to update if you ever reinstall

Yep, this is what I do.

 

[Xyclone]

I've done that, it works.