Backing Up Game/CharFollow

i am currently trying to take advantage of my short break, and reformat my computer and optimize everything. however, there is one obstical: my precious FFXI! i dont want to reformat my drive and lose 4 months of hard, hard work.

i would like to start back up with a fresh install of the game, so i really wanna know how to back up my char/account. if i have to back up the whole game, so be it. if anyone knows what i have to do , please tell me. if i have overlooked such information, please point me in the right direction.

and if everything is backed up automatically online, just say so.

i shall check this in a few hours, thanks in advance!

Edited, Sun Jan 18 19:15:04 2004 by Madnapali

I take it you haven't played MMORPGs much before : in pretty much every online game, all data is stored on the server, because otherwise people 'd just hack their characters. The only thing you have to save is your POLusername/POLpassword. You'll have to setup POL and FFXI and rebuild your macros from scratch and such, ofcourse.

[edit] Didn't know about what Cecil said : coo.

Edited, Sun Jan 18 19:34:44 2004 by Urakh

I just did this after upgrading hard drives and power supplies.

Basically, the FFXI software won't allow you to just copy the directories/files back over and run it again as if nothing happened -- it needs the install (with the probable exception of the user data, read: macros, as mentioned above.)

It screamed about installation path in the registry when I tried to execute POL, for those who wanna know. If I'd of known the correct path I'd of created it, but alas I didn't.

So you won't lose your character, but you will have to reinstall the game and experience the behemoth update that accompanies a first time POL/FFXI experience.