Hello everyone,

This is my first time posting here because I believe it is a very specific problem and I haven't been able to find any other posts with this issue. Yesterday evening I tried to download a clean version of Strangetown. I placed it originally by deleting the original hood from my Documents/EA Games/The Sims 2/Neighborhoods folder, and then placing the clean version in there. This worked fine but deleted all of my neighborhood stories in all hoods. I then followed the step-by-step instructions posted by the user who created this clean/fixed Strangetown, which was a different way to install the clean hood without deleting neighborhood stories. This included going into the game files in C:\Program Files (x86)\EA Games\The Sims 2\TSData\Res\UserData\Neighborhoods. The instructions then stated to either rename or move the original N002 file in there; I renamed it to "N002-maxis". The instructions then said to move the clean hood version of N002 into that same Neighborhoods folder.

Then the instructions followed by directing me to create a new save folder. It told me to do this by going to C:\Users\**user**\Documents\EA Games\The Sims 2 (**user** being my Windows username) and renaming The Sims 2 directory or moving it somewhere else. I renamed it to "The Sims 2-og". It then told me to load up the game to the main menu and exit immediately, which I did. A new save directory called The Sims 2 had been generated with the clean version of Strangetown as well as the Maxis version of Strangetown, along with all the other hoods as I have the Ultimate Collection. The instructions then said to copy the clean version of Strangetown from this new save folder into my Neighborhoods subfolder in the original Sims 2 save directory. I did this and then followed the instructions to delete the new save directory and restore my original save to its original name, that being "The Sims 2".

When I loaded up the game after doing this, all of my neighborhoods were completely wiped of any progress, lots, added subhoods, etc. I assume this means when the new save was created, it reverted my original one to factory reset as well. I had a backup though, so I then decided to remove this folder and place my backup folder of The Sims 2 into my EA Games folder. My downloads (CC and mods), screenshots from up to 2 days ago, and added subhoods and even some lots were still intact in game, but when I loaded it up, still, all my sims, families, and progress with pre-made sims were gone. On top of this, neighborhood stories and premade sims in the sim bin were also all gone. I also tried removing my Downloads folder and loading up the game CC-free to see if it would work, and still nothing showed up.

I'm just wondering if there is any way to recover this lost progress considering a bunch of my other stuff hasn't been deleted, like all of my CC and mods, including some I downloaded this week, and screenshots of my sims from this week also. If there isn't a simple solution, is there anything I can do to recover my data, like hiring someone? I've been playing with Belladonna Cove specifically and a family I've created there for over 4 years with no signs of corruption and I've always been very careful, downloading fixes to avoid corruption and following all the advice to avoid corruption, so I don't believe that's the problem here. I also checked SimPE and my sims don't appear in the Belladonna Cove sim browser. Please let me know what my options are or what you believe the issue could be. Thanks!