Well I've been playing with mods for a while now but today when I went to select which mods I wanted to use, none of them were there. I installed the mods again but still nothing appears under data files. What can I do?

Are you sure your game is patched to 1.2.0416 version?

Is there a Data folder within the Data folder?

I may sound like an idiot here but how do I patch Oblivion? It's never been updated before.

And there is not data folder in the data folder, should there be?

First http://www.gamesas.com/eng/downloads_01.html and run it like a normal program. it will update Oblivion to the latest version and that should fix your problems. And no there should NOT be a data folder within the data folder

Are you having problems viewing the data files?

If you are, chances are that you're running on Vista, am I right?

Yeah I'm running on Vista. It has worked previously though, yesterday I was playing a werewolf mod... but today I can't check the boxes because they don't appear :blink: :blink:

Go into your data folder in your Oblivion Folder and see there are new folders in there. If any go into that folder and cut a paste the file that makes the mod work. Also any other folders like texture, meshes and etc and paste it in your data folder.

You should also read the tips on TOmlong's website to correctly install and play with mods: http://sites.google.com/site/oblivionpoinfo/intro/newerusers

Should I try uninstalling and reinstalling the game?
And when I try and install the patch it says "Missing or Invalid Registry / INI Entry" then says "old file does not exist".

If that's a Game of The Year version, it doesn't need the Offical patch.
If your files Are actually in your Data folfer, you may just have to Regenerate your Ini file.
Go to "My Documents\Games\Oblivion, and move the Oblivion file to a differant folder, it will automaticly regenerate a New one

Also with Vist, it Is reccomended to install to a folder other than Program Files, or you will have to Enable Administrator Rights...

Eden, I think the biggest error you made was installing Oblivion under program files. That's why I said at the start that you probably have Vista, and I was right.

If you want full access to your esp's, you need to reinstall oblivion and make sure you do it under the C drive, i.e. My Documents. Vista is a PAIN and accessing esps or the data file itself is pretty much impossible if you install Oblivion the default way.

Oh, if you want to install patches, I'm pretty sure they're on Bethesda's official site somewhere.

I would never install Oblivion in "My Documents". There is already an Oblivion folder installed there automatically under "My Documents\My Games" and I'd be afraid of getting them mixed up.

Also, Windows Backup will backup everything in the "My Documents" more often then it will do a full backup, and that's a lot of extra work with Oblivion in there.

Making a folder just for Games installations, ie "C:\Games\" always seemed like the best option to me.

Actually, under My Documents, you'd have Bethesda Softworks>Oblivion under one folder and My Games>Oblivion, under the other. So it works.



Actually, if you make backups to a usb that's better than Windows always having to back everything up all the time. I have mine disabled.



A good alternative, but not the only or best option.

I agree that its not the only option, but "C:\Games" or similar is certainly the best. I really don't understand why you would install games under the "My Document" structure - as that is means for .... documents.

For the record, I have a separate Game drive (D), so I have Oblivion installed as "D:\Oblivion"

It doesn't matter if it's C:\Games or C:\Documents, the fact is that by having Oblivion under the general C drive is better than installing it under Program files in Vista, as otherwise the data file (containing esps) is almost impossible to manually locate (i.e. if you wanted to copy and paste an esp to a usb for backup purposes).



A good alternative, but, like I said, it's not the only one. My Documents will suffice just as any other functional folder. As long as the user remembers where they put the install, it really doesn't matter.

I think the reason why people shy away from using "My Documents" is that while it solves the UAC problem nicely enough, "My Documents" is also a special Windows folder which is treated differently from most.

Aside from the backup issue, which you've gotten around, there's also the fact that it is owned by the account it's registered with. So if you have multiple accounts on your computer and you install under "My Documents", Oblivion won't be available to any other persons account by default.

Obviously not a problem if you only have one account on the computer.

How is it treated differently?



Yes I have only one account and was basing my advice on a simple account under Vista. You may have a point, though I've never had more than a single user account so can't really say one way or the other.

All I know is, that in my experience, that for a single user account on Vista, installing Oblivion under the C Documents drive causes no problems (as long as windows backups are disabled, as already noted).

It's treated differently in that it's a relative path for most people. It seems to be just "C:/My Documents", but it's actually "C:/Users/Username/Documents". The relative path is the same for every user, but the actual path is different.

As you say, on a single user system without the default backup behaviour it works fine.

However, a custom Games folder works fine for every type of system.