Uninstall and reinstall help/advice needed

[Batman]

Good evening gents (and ladies). I'm about to build a new PC from scratch. I have DCS installed with number of modules (everything via Steam) and was wondering if I had to do anything before I go ahead and pull the plug on my old PC (see what I did there?). Many moons ago I vaguely remember if people wanted to upgrade/change hard drives etc there was a procedure/dance that had to be done before things could be reinstalled on new hardware. I searched around and can't find anything conclusive. Is it a matter of simply reinstalling from scratch or do I have to do something in Steam/DCS first?

Many thanks for the help.

PS: For those of you who play ARMA 3, do you know if the same applies?

[Rudel_chw]

1 hour ago, Batman said:

Good evening gents (and ladies). I'm about to build a new PC from scratch. I have DCS installed with number of modules (everything via Steam) and was wondering if I had to do anything before I go ahead and pull the plug on my old PC (see what I did there?).

 

Hello. You just need to backup the Steam Library where you have DCS installed, this can be ommited if the hard drive it's contained in, will be transfered "as-is" to your new PC. Also, backup your /Saved Games/DCS/ folder, as it contains most of your DCS customizations, like control bindings, Campaign status, configuration, custom liveries and missions, etc.

 

1 hour ago, Batman said:

Many moons ago I vaguely remember if people wanted to upgrade/change hard drives etc there was a procedure/dance that had to be done before things could be reinstalled on new hardware.

 

Some years ago, DCS used a hardware-based copy protection called Starforce, which required that "dance" ... nowadays you just have to remember your User ID and password (both Steam's and ED's), as the copy protection is currently account based.

[Batman]

Rudel_chw, thanks so much for getting back to me. It would be a new hard drive fresh out of the box. When you say backing up the Steam Library, is that for the sole purpose of saving my profile or something else?

 

"nowadays you just have to remember your User ID and password (both Steam's and ED's), as the copy protection is currently account based." This what i was after, so following that logic there is nothing stopping a fresh install? Steam won't go "oh hang on here, you're trying to install on multiple PC's, not going to allow that..."?

 

Thanks again.

[Rudel_chw]

2 hours ago, Batman said:

When you say backing up the Steam Library, is that for the sole purpose of saving my profile or something else?

 

Your DCS program is stored on a Steam Library, which is actually a folder on your disk. If you lose this folder you could always download the program again, losing only time and bandwidth. 

You can check your Steam Library using the configuration menu of your Steam client, mine looks like this:

 

 

On my PC I have three Steam libraries, each on a separate drive: C, E and H. The picture shows the games I have on the H library. These libraries correspond to disk folders, the H library looks like this from Windows file manager:

 

Your DCS settings and customizations, on the other hand, are stored at C:/Users/your-user/Saved Games/DCS/   ... if you lose this folder, there will be items lost forever, like your campaign status, your logbook, your control bindings, etc .... this needs a Backup if you are going to place that info on your new PC.

 

2 hours ago, Batman said:

... so following that logic there is nothing stopping a fresh install?

 

No, nothing 

 

2 hours ago, Batman said:

Steam won't go "oh hang on here, you're trying to install on multiple PC's, not going to allow that..."?

 

.No,  in fact if you have two computers, you can install Steam on both and place the same games on both computers ... the gotcha is that you will be able to use only one of those Steams at a time.

[Batman]

Rudel_chw, you are an absolute star, thank you very much for taking the time to explain, it's much appreciated and cleared up my doubts.

 

All the best.