As the topic states, I just accidently saved over my best save(level 30) when I thought I was gonna load game(dont know if it's just me but sometimes the mouse doesnt pick the selection I want, it doesnt light up but I didnt watch that closely) is there ANY way to reverse it? To get the save back? Checked auto saves, no one from my level 30 save there...

Sorry, no way back. The mouse jumps to another option very often, unfortunately. That's why i usually use W,S and E in menus.

Keep a backup of your best saves in another folder is recommended.

God flipping damnit -.- now I have to play on my level 7 mage instead of the assassin that I have completed all the side quests I have found and the entire freaking main quest.

By God, buddy! I have the save on my USB! Thank you! Thank you thank you thank you!

So what have we learned today?

HINT: THIS IS A BETHESDA GAME......

Yes, there is a way of recovering it. Go into your My Documents\My Games\Skyrim\Saves folder. Sort by Last Modified date to see the newest.

When Skyrim and other ES games overwrite any save they actually rename the existing one with a .bak extension and make a new one.

So your old save is there as .bak. Just rename it something else with an .ess extension.

Yes, and quicksaves and autosaves automatically make backups. That's pretty thoughtful of Bethesda, isn't it? Or are you implying that user error is the developer's fault?

Thanks for the tip. i wasn't aware of that

Wait, you had a level 30 toon and only had ONE save? That should be a good (but painful) lesson learned right there.

Personally, I save every 30 minutes to an hour. Then I cut those from my saves directory and paste them to a backup drive for safe keeping. Rule number ONE with any Bethesda game is save, save, SAVE, and then save some more! I do hope you recover your .bak file though.

Anytime.

wait.... you don't save more than 1 copy?

why don't people save frequenty?... i mean at least every say 15 minutes with no less than 1 save in an hour.

I save almost every 5 minutes.

typically i always save before entering a new area or dungeon..

i repeatedly hit F5 to quicksave through the first 15+ minutes.. and then ensure that i make a NEW save after each hour. it takes not even seconds to do it.

This is what I do..

For each character I create a new folder:

http://www.witchqueensia.com/gallery/d/60287-1/backups.jpg

Inside the my games folder

http://www.witchqueensia.com/gallery/d/60290-1/mygames-folder.jpg

Every day taking all my saves and copy them into their individual folders

http://www.witchqueensia.com/gallery/d/60293-1/Orc-saves.jpg

Deleting all but the last save in the actual save folder at the end of the play session.

Thusly I have one save for each race/activity I want to do..
Deleting individual folders of the characters I'm done playing with ..-s-

Pretty much exactly what I do as well. Nice to find another OCD file organizer/saver out there. We may need a support group.

Not at all. Just that keeping limited numbers of saves while playing any Bethesda game is asking for trouble down the road. SAVE SAVE SAVE. I defend Bethesda as a developer to the ends of the Earth, but with a game this huge and complex, you will run into a bug, glitch or unforseen interaction between quests at some point in the future and the more saves you have and keep the better your chances of getting around it.

Alternatively, if you're on Win7, you can see if Windows keeps an older version of the folder with your saves (right click on the folder, choose revert to older version or such).
Don't know if it works, but it is present for me.

Well I never thought of it that way. Just trying to have more than one save and Bethesda games don't organize them like Dragon age did.. I could have several different games in DA.. DA 2 also I think.. I can't in Bethesda games so I do it myself -s-

There are a number of utilities out on the Nexus that will do the character (and associated save games) management for you.