Mass Effect 1 and 2 and a new hard drive.

Stranger Danger

So, I had an old computer. It died, but the hard drive was still good. I got a newer, shinier computer and puttered with that for a while. Now mass effect 3 has prompted me to use my old hard drive again and get caught up! Is there any way to use my old mass effect installations and saves? I'd rather not chase down all my ME 1 dlc and get all the achievements for the ME2 transfers.

Javen

Stranger Danger wrote:

So, I had an old computer. It died, but the hard drive was still good. I got a newer, shinier computer and puttered with that for a while. Now mass effect 3 has prompted me to use my old hard drive again and get caught up! Is there any way to use my old mass effect installations and saves? I'd rather not chase down all my ME 1 dlc and get all the achievements for the ME2 transfers.

Are you looking to play through all three, or just use an ME2 save to import? If it's the latter, you shouldn't even need the installations, just the completed ME2 save. Achievements don't carry over, so no worries there. It should just be a matter of plugging in the hard drive, and using the ME3 config tool to point the game towards the folder with your ME2 saves.

HadjiQuest

I don't think you can point the ME3 config tool.

So you'll have to create the following when you grab them
My Documents -> BioWare -> Mass Effect 2 -> Save -> (Character file with all your saves goes here. The folder naming convention should be Name_Level_Class_Date)

So, more of a hassle than it was to import your ME1 character.

Stranger Danger

I want to play through all three without having to reinstall and get EA to cough up my ME1 dlc. I have some ME2 runs complete and some ME1 runs in progress that need to be finished. Also apparently ME1 achievements effect the transfers to ME2, so I would like to save those.

Hahnsoo1

If you are simply looking for hardware to connect your old drive to your new computer, you can either just plug it into your new computer with a SATA or IDE cable (depending on your motherboard and Hard Drive), or get a USB enclosure (runs about 10-20 bucks) for your hard drive of the appropriate type and plug it into the USB port. Then just dig out your save from your My Documents directory.

Stranger Danger

Hm. Would transferring over my saves and loading a fresh install keep my ME 1 achievements?

Stranger Danger

Alrighty, apparently it does save most of my achievements. The important ones.

It does not seem to recognise the DLC though. Anyway to convince ME1 that it has the DLC installed already? I did not do a fresh install so the files are still in there.

Ruckus

Stranger Danger wrote: »

Alrighty, apparently it does save most of my achievements. The important ones.

It does not seem to recognise the DLC though. Anyway to convince ME1 that it has the DLC installed already? I did not do a fresh install so the files are still in there.

I know with the Steam version you have to reinstall the DLC packages for ME1&2. I don't know where you can get the ME1 installer, but you should be able to get the ME2 stuff by going to http://social.bioware.com, logging in with your EA/Origin/Bioware/Cerberus (all the same now) account, then in the left menu choose Profile>Your registered game content. All of the DLC you registered or bought from the Cerberus Network should be listed there (and usually some other crap thats free too.

[Edit] If you think you may have the Bring Down the Sky package on your old HD somewhere, on mine it's called "MassEffect_BDtS_ES_a.exe" if you want to do a file search.

[edit2] and oh hey here's the file download on Bioware's site (you'll need your key though)

Eat it You Nasty Pig.

the import flags that govern ME2/3 are all contained within the save files, so you don't need to worry about the DLC installation unless you actually want to play ME1.

ed: oh, I see that you do. nevermind me

KafkaAU

The free ME1 dlc you can get buy asking going to EA and asking their online support for a code and a link. The paid one, not sure what you can do for that.