6

As the question stated, just how can I backup my game saves?

I play lots of games; some of them, like Skyrim, are using the following directory in Vista/7:

%USERPROFILE%\Documents\Mygames\

However, where can I locate the rest of the games?

I don't mean all of them, just the most common locations of game saves that most games use in Windows XP and Windows Vista/7 so I can back them up.

Edit:

What I mean is the locations that games most commonly use, not just one location. For example, I have Skyrim, Kingdom of Amalur: Reckoning, Resident Evil: Operation Racoon City, Binary Domain, Rage, Tomb Raider: Underworld, Dead Space, and Amnesia in the directory I provided. I only found Reckoning and Skyrim, plus Reckoning doesn't look like game saves at all because it only contains *.ini files, which I believe are settings files.

Aamer
  • 163
  • 1
  • 6
  • you've already answered your own question, the user profile docutment games path is the most common place. – Ender Jul 30 '12 at 09:42
  • @Ender, not all games are using that directory. – Aamer Jul 30 '12 at 09:43
  • You didn't ask for all games, you asked for the most common location. – Ender Jul 30 '12 at 09:45
  • Locations not a location, that is :) – Aamer Jul 30 '12 at 09:49
  • I would look for a save game manager online, these may have a DB of games and their save locations. In its current state the question looks too broad – JohnoBoy Jul 30 '12 at 10:25
  • Wow, this question has a lot of tags. I think we can remove a few, but not sure which ones. Anybody? It think only windows and backup are needed. – Ids Jul 30 '12 at 12:10
  • Hi, Aamar. Unfortunately, I'm going to be voting to close your question because it's far too broad. You already know where the most common place is, and you're just looking for a list of other locations, and you don't limit the list at all. I'm not sure how you would limit it, though, as asking, "Where are the two most common locations for save games?" would result in lots of discussion, which is also a bad thing. – Frank Jul 30 '12 at 12:14
  • 2
    Hello fbueckert, What I meant from this question is, the most used locations, doesn't necessarily means all of them and I also mentioned that in the question as well. As for the discussions that will be held because of my question, it is nothing big, just some suggestions of general places and that's it. – Aamer Jul 30 '12 at 12:32

4 Answers4

7

The most common savegame locations are:

  • My Documents (usually subfolders, often 'My Games' or the publisher's name)
  • Saved Games folder introduced in Vista (I think)
  • AppData (C:\Users\%account%\AppData)
  • Steam's userdata folder (in the Steam directory, usually backed up automatically to the cloud)
  • The game's folder, mostly used by ancient games
kotekzot
  • 42,374
  • 65
  • 195
  • 283
3

There is a wiki with a list of the savegame locations for many games

Save Game Locations Wiki

Sentry
  • 3,811
  • 2
  • 25
  • 41
  • Thanks Sentry, but the list is not updated frequently.Edit what I meant was, the list doesn't contain all big titles at least. – Aamer Jul 30 '12 at 12:35
  • I know, but it's wiki, so you can always add some new entries yourself. I do that once in a while. – Sentry Jul 31 '12 at 13:24
2

You can look up the game's article at the PC Gaming Wiki. Save game locations are usually written in each game's article there. It also usually notes other details, like if the game saves to cloud storage.

galacticninja
  • 46,036
  • 98
  • 303
  • 557
2

There are programs which can help you with that, which are dealing with the path for saves, for a quite long list of possible games (and you can also add more to the list).

For example, GameSave Manager.

GameSave Manager

You can set it to backup to any folder, and I think it has a specific setting for Dropbox. You can also schedule it to do the backup regularly.

I tried it, it works quite good. Be careful though about disk space though, some games are taking a lot of space in saves (The Witcher, for example)

Gnoupi
  • 5,671
  • 4
  • 41
  • 59