Steam – Skyrim – Crashed Hard disk lost all local saves, steam cloud backed up nothing

Games with Steam Cloud support may save games to Steam servers. You can see if a game has Steam Cloud support by checking if it has the Cloud icon beside it in Steam's Library List View. Unfortunately, even if a game has Steam Cloud support, that game may not save games via Steam Cloud and might only store things like keybindings or other settings. It also may not save all of your save games to Steam Cloud.

Even with Steam Cloud support, if you are using multiple computers it can sometimes take some time for all of your Steam Cloud settings and save games to synchronize with the server. Also, the save game support with Steam Cloud can be added as a late feature to a game after you've made a save, and that old save might never sync. I believe that if you are set in Offline mode, your games/settings won't sync until you go back to an online status in Steam.

Steam's Cloud icons on the Library List View will also sometimes inform you when there were problems syncing.

Torchlight, as an example, has provided Steam Cloud support only recently, and the support for full save games on Steam Cloud is even more recent. If your save games were created before the version with Steam Cloud save game support, those save games may not sync.

If you think that you are having Steam Cloud issues, your best bet may be to inquire with Steam's Support Forum.

Games that don't support Steam Cloud, or don't support saving games to Steam Cloud, will save games in "all the usual places", which means that it often varies from game to game, but is commonly in a folder under your Documents or Application Data folders. You may have to follow up with the individual game to find some of these save game locations.

Edit: I neglected to ask if you are on a PC, or a console. PS3 console suggestion at the bottom (I am not very familiar with Xbox).

PC --

Assuming that you are using Steam on the PC, you can try verifying and repairing the locally installed files.

• Fire up Steam
• Locate Skyrim in your games list
• Right click on the game name and select Properties
• Click the Local Files tab
• Click "Verify Integrity of the Game Cache ..."

If this doesn't help you, you could also try checking for errors on your hard disk using Scan Disk, in the event that you have some file corruption. This may or may not recover the damaged files but it's worth a shot.

There are two ways to access Scan Disk. I'm going to assume that you are using Windows 7 and that your save files are on the C: drive, if not, enter the drive letter that the files are on. Steps will vary slightly for Windows XP / Vista.

Via command prompt:

• Click Start and type: cmd
• Type: chkdsk c: /r
• Windows will ask you if you want to run check disk on the next book, type: Y
• Reboot

Via Windows Explorer:

• Open Computer
• Right-click on the C: drive and choose Properties
• Click the Tools tab
• Under Error-checking, click "Check now..."
• Check both boxes and click Start
• Windows will prompt you to schedule the disk check, click the button already
• Reboot

PS3 --

Suggestions via Bethesda forums:

Restore File System. Attempts to repair all areas on the hard disk drive where files can be saved. Corrupted data may be erased, which can help performance.

If you choose not to enter Safe Mode, you can manually delete corrupted saves within the XMB menu. Go to Games>Saved Game Utility. Within the menu, delete any corrupted save files. These files can be created from Skyrim and other games when a game doesn’t save properly (shutting down the console before an autosave completes, etc).

Rebuild Database. Will help with memory fragmentation on the PS3 HDD. Note: Using Rebuild Database will erase messages, playlists, changes made on Information screens, trimming information for pictures in Photo, video thumbnails, video playback history and video resume information. The content that is erased will not be recoverable.