Fantasy grounds uninstalled, reinstalled - campaigns & homebrew lost?

[Varatta]

Hello... so long story short, my roomate installed unity in the same folder as classic. Then uninstalled it... which uninstalled both. Have re-installed classic but can't find my campaigns or homebrew content at all (including a full world, races, classes, etc). Months and months of work MIA. Please tell me it's not lost. Please help.

There may be another thread about this but I couldn't find one.

PLZ HLP before I have a nervous breakdown.

[Moon Wizard]

Have you already checked the default install location for FG data folder?
C:\Users\(UserName)\AppData\Roaming\Fantasy Grounds\

Did your room mate install both the app and data folder for FGU to the same location? If so, then the folder was probably deleted, since there is a known uninstall issue with the FGU app folder specifically that we’re looking into.

Also, the app and data folder should never be installed in the same location for either FGC or FGU; and FGC and FGU should never be installed in the same folder.

Regards,
JPG

[Varatta]

Have you already checked the default install location for FG data folder?
C:\Users\(UserName)\AppData\Roaming\Fantasy Grounds\

Did your room mate install both the app and data folder for FGU to the same location? If so, then the folder was probably deleted, since there is a known uninstall issue with the FGU app folder specifically that we’re looking into.

Also, the app and data folder should never be installed in the same location for either FGC or FGU; and FGC and FGU should never be installed in the same folder.

Regards,
JPG

Okay this is what we can piece together:
- FGC was installed in a D/Games folder - which created a Fantasy Grounds folder among other things.
- FGC data was stored in the default location as far as we knew, but that could be wrong.
- FCU was installed in the D/Games/Fantasy Grounds folder.
- FCU data *we think* was stored in the same D/Games/Fantasy Grounds folder.

When he went to transfer some characters from Classic he opened the classic data folder and it kept booting up FGU for some reason. That's when he uninstalled it. We had NO clue it would uninstall both Classic and Unity and there was no warning of that, just a pop up saying the campaigns, dlcs, etc would be safe. Apparently that was a vicious lie? =P

Does that shed any light?

I have checked the default location and see no fantasy grounds folder in the /roaming. Not looking good. I really don't remember where the data files from FGC where originally stored, default or if I put them somewhere closer to the source so the /roaming may be a red herring. But searches for "Fantasy Grounds" folders, even "Campaigns" and the name of my custom setting export with all the classes and races - those searches aren't turning up anything yet.

If we did lose everything, is there any way to find it/recover it? I mean, over hundreds of pages of custom classes, races, items - the stories are easy enough to recreate but the class work is going to make me want to quit.

Appreciate your help.

[damned]

search your HDD(s) for db.xml
see what you find

then get an undelete tool and search again for db.xml

you should find something through one or the other methods....

[Varatta]

Will work on that - a search of the PC found nothing for db.xml except one ridiculously long file name.

I asked my players to see if they have anything, one found a folder in their Cache folder with what looks like a lot of the homebrew stuff including some .dat files that look like the campaign world module I had created. Would me importing these anywhere help or are they just shadows?


------------
update, the only DB files I could find on my C drive or D drive are recent. One called db, oone called db.restore and one called db.session.bignumber - these are from FG but they are recent - well after the uninstall took place. I have two other dbfiles but their directories don't look like they have anything to do with FG - one dates back to the 18th and the other to january 2016. =P

[Varatta]

search your HDD(s) for db.xml
see what you find

then get an undelete tool and search again for db.xml

you should find something through one or the other methods....

I just worry I don't really know what I'm looking for or what to do with it to confirm I've found something useful. I know nothing about programming and don't know where I should put things in the newly installed folders anyway to check. If I do find a db.xml, what do I even do with it/how do I know it's what I'm looking for?

[damned]

you will need to use some sort of undelete tool to scan your HDD.

[Varatta]

Okay so I got one but I just don't feel like I know what I'm looking for. I found a folder under campaigns with the campaign I lost but when I dropped it in the new FG campaigns folder it wouldn't register, so maybe that's not what I needed? It was full of .dat files. What are the .dat files anyway?

[damned]

That folder is a cache folder not a campaign folder.
Have you searched with an undelete tool?

[damned]

Try this - will recover 500MB free: https://www.cleverfiles.com/disk-drill-windows.html