So I create a character that I loved playing, a Wood Elf thief. Level 46, maxed smithing and sneak, kick-ass gear and weapons, daedric artifacts galore. Then I think "Hey let's make a warrior character!" So I did, and when playing him, I took extra time and was very careful not to save over my already-existing saves of my wood elf. But after playing with my new warrior for a day or two, I come back and what don't I find? The saves of my thief I put dozens and dozens of hours into developing. I know that when saving my game, I would always check and double check to make sure I wasn't saving over my thief. What could have caused this so I can avoid it in the future? Is there anything I could do (or that you would recommend I do) to either get my saves back (which is probably not possible) or at least emulate his existence again?

I accept the fact that I'll likely have to go through all the quests again. I don't mind that TOO much. But making my full set of dragon armor and those hundreds of iron daggers again? No sir.

This is a glitch that's been reported a few times, and as far as I know there's nothing you can do about it. Restrain the rage face, I know that's not quite what you wanted to hear.

I actually encountered this as well though haven't researched it enough to find the source. I kept a save at ~8 minutes into the game right before you create your character so I could skip the intro and discovered that save gone the other day. There must be a limit to how long a save exists or how many you can have, not sure.

That could be true for XBox or PS3. But it doesn't apply to PC. On PC I have hundreds of saves in my saves folders, for three characters, going back to November 11. All intact.

Same thing is happening to me on the PS3. Luckily I caught it and backed up my last save to USB. It's the most bizarre glitch I've ever seen. It's not because of some save limit. I had 10 saves on one character. I started a new character. I decided I only needed 3 saves this time so each time I would over-write one of the top 3 saves. This is still maintaining 10 total saves. The next day I turn my PS3 on and somehow the saves I over-wrote are back and are in place of my last character. So instead of having 3 saves for the new character and 7 for the old I had 6 for the new and 4 for the old. I've never seen anything like it. The game is somehow maintaining the saves that should have been overwritten then putting them in the place of old saves. It doesn't happen in a single session. Only when I exit the game and restart it. It's crazy.

Known glitch for the PS3. There's no way to get your saves back unfortunately.

You'll have to do as the guy above and save your files onto and external source if you want to keep them safe.

This happened to me but I use the PC version. I had a character that I put a solid 50 hours into. Decided to make another character. I use quicksave all the time and this is what I believe caused mine to be overwritten. svcks....

im going on 6 different characters now. i really wish bethesda had implemented a system where you could swap between different characters like many other games have. as it is no i have to rename folders and swap them around and it gets a bit cumbersome.

I've been using multiple xbox profiles to keep my characters separate. Of course this won't stop older saves from getting deleted, but at least they won't override each other or cause older characters to disappear completely. It's not ideal, luckily I don't care for achievements. Separate profiles for each characters would have been much, much better.

I understand the idea of using multiple xbox sign ins for multiple characters but wont that mean having to buy DLC for each separate character?

Yeah well I'm using the PC version. I've taken to backing up my save files every time I decide to switch characters. Folders dated on backup for extra assurance. Thanks for the info, guys. Guess I'll just start over, again... This time, as a descendant of my original sneaky character in Oblivion. Hoth Seraden shall be avenged!

I am secretly happy your save got erased. Level 100 Smithing with Iron daggers? Cheap man, real cheap. On the other hand, bummer dude but try enjoy the game at a more slower pace, walking around in full Daedric from Whiterun ruins exploration.

Not necessarily. I made that armor so I would be more aptly equipped to handle the world. I found that if I was ever in a direct confrontation and not attacking from the shadows (which happened a lot at lower levels and often in the day time) I wouldn't stand much a chance. So I made the armour to last longer in fights. Also, it'd be awesome if I had sneak enchanted dragon scale armor. Seriously.

No, DLC is bound to the actual hardware, not the profile. So I can acces my DLC on any of my profiles as long as i play on the same xbox.

This is a really poor attitude and response.