(Vista & XP)Share saved games between Multiple OS - For hardcore Gamers

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Rollercoaster

Rollercoaster

-The BlacKCoaT Operative-
(Vista & XP)Share saved games between multiple OSes

Introduction
With the release of vista I was excited and noticed that the era of multiple operating systems had returned. Just as when XP was released Computer enthusiasts had both 98 and XP installed. Similarly since the launch of Vista a lot of people now have vista as well as XP installed.
NOTE- This solution is not unique to vista and XP it can work in between multiple XPs or Vistas..if u catch my drift :)


Problem
With multiple OSes we definitely have problems like installing software twice. But a lot of Software and applications can be run from the same location. For example games. Say u were playing NFS MW in XP. You install vista and want to play MW, You have two options, ONE, do the tiresome job of either copying the saved games from the XP drive to the vista drive(and then back if u want to play from XP again) or TWO, restart the system to XP. It is very inconvenient.

Solution-
The best solution i came across is to create virtual folders(aka Hard links, Special Folders. not Virtual folders feature in Vista). What we want to do is have the actual save game files in one location, like XP, and create a virtual folder linking it to them from vista.

Assumptions -
  1. XP installed in I:\Windows
  2. Vista installed in C:\Windows
  3. Games installed in D:\ (eg "e:\NFS Most wanted") (can be anywhere)
  4. MW creates saves in XP "I:\Documents and Settings\%username%\my documents\NFS Most Wanted"
  5. Req. virtual folder in vista at(MW creates saves here in vista) "C:\users\%username%\documents\NFS Most Wanted"
  6. Substitute drive letters, directory and username to ur system specific
  7. BACKUP YOUR DATA BEFORE MOVING FORWARD

There are many options to do this like-
  • mapping a folder to a drive then mapping that drive to another folder
  • using DOS Commands like SUBST and FSUTIL or
  • Shell extensions(playing with objectID, BirthvolumeID etc and desktop.ini scripts)
  • Windows Resource kit utility - linkd.exe
These options are messy, unless u r a 5 year veteran Linux admin. After a lot of very hard searching I found the utility called 'Winhardlink'. It does all the dirty work for You. You just have to specify the source directory/file and the target directory/file.​

*img63.imageshack.us/img63/313/winhlxd5.th.jpg
About WinHardLink - Homepage - Direct Download - License(free) - Size(563 KB (576,687 bytes))

Advantages of WinHardLink(my opinion)
  • Works on vista :)
  • Created Hard links work across OSes. i.e. if u create it in vista it will automatically be available as a normal folder in the other OS even if this utility is not installed
  • XP cannot differentiate between links and actual folders
  • Vista shows a shortcut icon on the hard link but reports as a folder in properties

How-to (example using NFS MW and above assumptions)
  1. Download and install WinHardLink in one OS(say vista)
  2. Launch from start menu
  3. Select Hard Link>New Virtual Folder. a windows will pop up.
  4. Click "..." against the 'Alias dir' to select the destination to "C:\users\%username%\documents\NFS Most Wanted" (You may have to create a new folder 'NFS Most wanted'
  5. Click "..." against the 'Source dir' to select the location of the saved game to "I:\Documents and Settings\%username%\my documents\NFS Most Wanted"
  6. Click OK. You are done.
  7. Make sure the checkbox is checked along the folder in the main window of WinHardLink

Testing
  • browse to see that the folder exists
  • Create a new text file in either folder and put some text in it
  • check the other folder for its existence
  • cross check by editing both files and re opening from the other folder
  • They should behave as normal file folders
  • start the game and see that the profile is loaded
  • done :) Now u can play MW from any os without worrying about multiple saves

More Suggested uses
  • consolidation of saved games. i.e. u can move the all save games to a central location like "d:\saves\[game-name]" and create virtual folders in both OSes where the games expect the saved games to be. Now u can format/reinstall etc without disturbing saves.
  • When one drive is full u can move any folder to another location and just create a hard link for it in its place (see moving the whole MS office folder at the homepage above)
  • Use in conjunction with 'saved searches (aka virtual folders)' feature of Vista to have the ultimate control over data accessibility

Tested with-
  • NFS MW
  • NFS Carbon(but there is some compatibility problem in vista in loading saves created in XP)
  • Just Cause
  • Battlefield 2 & 2142
  • Fifa 07
  • PES6
  • GTA SA
  • MS Flight Simulator X
  • Visual Studio .net Projects
  • Portable apps launce icons
  • NOT tested with network folders.

Cheers. If u like this solution then please rate the thread and spread some rep.
@MODs - suggested for a sticky, may be in the games section.
 
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s18000rpm

s18000rpm

ಠ_ಠ
great Tutorial Rollecoaster :)



btw, in GTA save folder, there is a file named "gta_sa.set", it gets created according to h/w (& OS). (this file saves screen resl. setting, controller settings...)

so if we apply ur method, will the same ".set" file work both o n XP & Vista???
 
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Rollercoaster

Rollercoaster

-The BlacKCoaT Operative-
Yes it works. perfectly i may say. i tested GTS SA with different graphic settings as well as controller settings(both joystick and gamepad too)

you point is very good but there is a tricky mistake. those settings are about the prefrences for the game not the OS so it does not matter in that way. none of the settings like resolution and key bindings change in between same platform OSes, as a result .. it does not create any problems.

the problem would arise in such cases in which the same hardware is not addressed and configured in the same way. Like if say a value 0x00ff is assigned to joypad in vista but in xp it is 0xff00. then there would be a problem. or for another examples sake, lets say that in xp ur gfx drivers allow a max res of 1600x1200 but for some reason the gfx drivers in vista allow only 1280x768. And the game is configured to the max resolution. now if u run the game in vista using those files then it way have trouble running.


btw guys thanks for the reps... feels gr8... especially after all i worked on this for three days :)
 
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caleb

caleb

Ambassador of Buzz
Great tutorial Rollercoster, excellent work...rep'd you and voted 5star for this thread. keep up the good work.
 
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Rollercoaster

Rollercoaster

-The BlacKCoaT Operative-
lol thatz cool.
the main point here is that a hardlink is just another pointer to data on hdd nothing else.
 
X

XtraOrdinary

Right off the assembly line
wow dude. this is cool.. i installed vista today and was having same issue with HL2. thanks

btw what happens if i move a system folder or a software folder from program files and make this virtual folder insted? will windows crash
 
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Rollercoaster

Rollercoaster

-The BlacKCoaT Operative-
btw here is a bit into the how it is made possible..

in NTFS each item on the hdd has a unique ID called ObjectID
And this ObjectID is linked to the location of that data

we can see this id with the commant c:\>fsutil objectid query <file name>
now if another item in created on the hdd and its objectid is changed to an ID that is not unique then routine access to that data will be pointed to the same location

for eg here is the output for the original and the hardlink for NFS carbon
Code: 
>fsutil objectid query ARollerCoaster
"C:\Users\VJ\Documents\NFS Carbon\ARollerCoaster\ARollerCoaster"
Object ID :        c9618730bcc0db1186440015f24b0623
BirthVolume ID :   51d5b6951fd3a144b8000df0de444550
BirthObjectId ID : c9618730bcc0db1186440015f24b0623
Domain ID :        00000000000000000000000000000000


>fsutil objectid query ARollerCoaster
"I:\Documents and Settings\vj\My Documents\NFS Carbon\ARolleCoaster\ARollerCoaster"
Object ID :        c9618730bcc0db1186440015f24b0623
BirthVolume ID :   51d5b6951fd3a144b8000df0de444550
BirthObjectId ID : c9618730bcc0db1186440015f24b0623
Domain ID :        00000000000000000000000000000000
 
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Rollercoaster

Rollercoaster

-The BlacKCoaT Operative-
New tools that do the job even better (and work in Windows 7 too)

Link Shell Extension
*schinagl.priv.at/nt/hardlinkshellext/submenue.png

Junction Link Magic
*www.rekenwonder.com/images/linkmagicVista.gif

Have fun :)
 
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