I just found out about the deal with many mods being borked with missing data from TESnip and whatnot. Turns out many, many of the mods I used contained these errors.

So with my new install I'm trying to avoid the problem by opening every single mod I dl in the CK before I install it. Time consuming and tedious but hopefully it will reduce the likelihood of yet another install going bad and another corrupt set of saves.

Here are my questions:

Some mods wont open at all, they just crash the CK. No questions here, these are obviously fubar.

Some mods will open, it gives me the option to fix header errors. Does this take care of the issues (assuming I can save them, I haven't actually tried now that I think about it)?

If it will open in the CK without the Header errors and whatnot, does that mean the mod does not have these errors?

As I said I just found out about this, any info is greatly appreciated.

Can you give a link to mods that crashes CK or have header errors? Need to check them.

I deleted all my old archives (4th reinstall in two weeks, so frustrating), so not really -- at the moment anyway. Most of the ones I've downloaded for my new install are CK made, and I've spent two days combing over comments to try and weed out the bad ones.

I suppose I could add a running list to the OP with any mods that come up with errors as I go though. The reason I posted this thread is because of http://skyrim.nexusmods.com/mods/8003 which I really would like to use, as there is, as far as I am aware, no comparable replacement for it. The two mods that it requires ( http://skyrim.nexusmods.com/mods/6047 and http://skyrim.nexusmods.com/mods/4719 ) both open in the CK with no errors. Which is funky, because as I far as I am aware, they were both made with TESSnip and SkyEdit as well.

Complete Crafting Overhaul, however, has File Header errors.

As far as I understand it, some of these mods may have been started or partially created using Snip, and then resaved in the CK - it seems likely that the corrupt records would have already been baked into the esp by the time it's saved in the CK, so the CK may no longer give the errors even though the damage has already been done. In the same manner, even if you open and resave an old pre-CK mod in the CK, it won't necessarily correct those errors.

No. Generating bad header data is only one of TESVSnip's flaws, and a fairly harmless one. The biggest problem is compressed data getting truncated, and the CK can't salvage that.
No. Many mod authors were savvy enough to save their mod in the CK after having used TESVSnip to reduce errors. It's still borked though.

If you know a mod has been edited with TESVSnip but doesn't contain any compressed record types, it may yet be safe to use. I don't know all the compressed types, though, but at least CELL and WRLD are sure to be screwed up. Also, Snip has been known to mess up script properties.

Ugh. Well that's bad news. Guess I'll have to back and check the dates on everything I dl'd.


Anyone recommend a good alternative to Complete Crafting Overhaul?

Skyrealism series of mods - 1 of them (materials?) does the armor fixes and ACE changes smithing perk tree (don't know about skyre).