Are you tired of searching for your game saves and coming up empty-handed? It can be frustrating to not be able to locate your progress in a game, but fear not! In this article, we will be discussing two methods to help you find your game save files quickly and easily.
File Explorer
The first method is a simple file search using the modified time. To get started, open up your file explorer and make sure that you can view hidden files. Then, click the search box in the top right corner of the window to open up the search tab. Here, make sure you're looking in all subfolders and type in your search query. We'll be looking for all files modified while the game was running, so just type in the start time from when you were playing the game and the end time is the moment you finished or soon after.
For example, if you were playing the game between 4:00 PM and 4:25 PM on November 8th, 2019, you can type in the following query:
datemodified:11/8/2019 4:00 .. 11/8/2019 4:25
This will search for any files modified within that time frame. You can also narrow down the folders where your save files could be located by adding a condition to the search query. For example, if you know that your save files could only be on the C or D disk, you can add the following condition to your search query:
(folder:(c:) OR folder:(d:)) datemodified:11/8/2019 4:00 .. 11/8/2019 4:25
This will search for files either on the C or D disk that were modified while you were playing the game.
If you're only looking in one folder, you can navigate to that folder in file explorer and run the search from there. Once the search is complete, there are often too many files found to just scroll through everything. To make things easier, select all the files, then shift+right-click (it only works if you're holding shift down while right-clicking), and then select "Copy as path." This will copy all the file paths to your clipboard, which you can then paste into a text editor like Notepad.
In Notepad, you can use the search function (Ctrl+F or Edit > Find) to look for the possible save file. Select "wraparound" to make sure it's searching the entire file and look for the save file. This method is more effective than searching by filename because you don't have to rerun the search every time you want to try another guess. Once you find the file, you're done!
Process Monitor
To get started, head over to www.sysinternals.com and download the zipped file for Process Monitor. Once it's downloaded, unpack it anywhere and run the Process Monitor exe.
The first thing you'll need to do is set up the filter. If the game is already running, it will show up in the drop-down, making it easier to select. However, if you can't find the game in the drop-down, you can look it up in the Task Manager. Once you've selected the game, choose "Operation is create file" and "Operation is write file" to find the save files. You can also add additional filters to find out which files the game reads from or if it writes anything to the registry.
Once you've set up the filter, start playing the game. After the game has written save data, check the Process Monitor to locate the save files. You can exclude unnecessary files by right-clicking on them and selecting "Exclude Path." Then, right-click on the file you're looking for and select "Jump to" to open the containing folder in File Explorer.
This method is an easy and efficient way to locate your game files and back them up or move them to a new computer. Whether you're a gamer or a software developer, Process Monitor is a powerful tool that can help you find and track file and registry activity.
In conclusion, finding your game saves doesn't have to be a headache. By using these two methods, you can quickly and easily locate your progress in any game. Give them a try the next time you're struggling to find your save files! If you have any questions or comments, please leave them below. Happy gaming!