I really want to make a new character, but I have read horror stories about people losing all of their previous character save data. I have read that you need to alter values in the Skyrim.ini file and change .dak files to .ess files ....is this correct? could someone please link an exact algorithm to making and saving a new toon without having the previous one overwritten. Thank you very much.

aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh! dont call it a toon.

I was too...but what worked for me is that I just made a few actual saves on my old char...and then the autosaves ate themselves up. Worked fine for me though...I now have three dif char files going

This x infinity + 1.

I have made several characters without this problem, I bet you could save your old char in a separate folder if your on PC though just in case, it might corrupt the backup save but I haven't had any corruption issues with Skyrim either, though I haven't tried backing up externally

Just make a subfolder in the save folder and dump all the saves from your first character into it. If you want to go back just swap out. I have six active characters and just move saves back and forth from subfolders when i want to switch.

...also...infinity + 2

1) Install Wrye Bash.
2) Go to the "Saves" tab.
3) Right-click any of the column headers.
4) Select Profile/Edit Profiles...
5) Create a new profile for each character.
6) To switch characters, select the corresponding profile name from the right-click menu.

Are you on the PC? Simple thing is to use Windows Explorer and create a sub folder in your Skyrim/Saves folder and move your old character saves to that. You can also do something like this on the 360 using a Flash Drive. Just move the saves to that for archiving.

For the PS-3, I think you can move saves around, but on that system, it may be best to create a new profile for a new character. On that system, a new game seems to overwrite the old saves. But, people who start a new game with a character that has just started the tutorial (right after the first Autosave) don't have this issue. You can re-roll your character using that technique.

However, if you are using Autosaves, which is a bad idea anyway, then it becomes next to impossible to run more than one character at once. The best way, perhaps the only effective way, to run multiple characters is use manual save slots. Even then, it is easy to overwrite a save file from a different character, so be careful.

There are three characters that have been played extensively on my computer, and I've never once lost a save. I do disable autosaves which may be why I've avoided this problem.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ADrojCw6amM


*ahem*

I haven't had any issues with save data being deleted. Quicksaves and autosaves will be though if you use those features.

Thanks for all the info regarding my "Character" saves ...whom I will never again refer to as a "toon," (didn't realize it offended).

On PC, even with autosaves, you should be fine so long as before you quit a character for the day, you do a manual save (IE, not auto or quicksave).

EDIT: Also the "toon" snobbery is getting out of hand. So many people would rather tantrum over a word than actually help.

If your really worried about it just make a permanent save and then rename that save. Just add .{char.name} or whatever to the very end of the save. To play it again simply remove the added words. You don't want to change the whole file name obviously in case you forget what the save was called.

This works just fine. Me and my boyfriend have 4 characters each and we had to make a folder on the desktop to store them in when we switch. Never had a corrupted save or any problems either with any of the characters.

@OP: Don't mind the toon is bad mob. Theres been an influx of 'mmo mentality' (becoming an overused term now) to this game and its best disconnect mmo anything from Skyrim or you could end up with expectations which ruins a game experience. IMHO call it whatever you want, but if you decide to use toon, use it frequently in conversations about skyrim for the lols.

Back in the days of Morrowind and Daggerfall, we called them Paper Dolls.

Happy to Report that I now know how to make sub-folders in the Saves folder and assign different character saves to their proper folders. I even have a folder dedicated to a save right before the guard in the opening town asks you who you are. Thanks again for all the help!

Why would anyone get their Daisy Dukes in a twist over someone calling a few pixels a 'toon'? Next people will be telling me Mario et al and my bunch of pixels are nothing alike.

It's not snobbery, that's giving 'em too much credit, it's, well ... erm, i won't say as I'm not going to insult another advlt over some silly video game.

I'm not that complex. I just select all the current saves and zip 'em up. When I want to play another character, I just unzip their save files .

Personaly i Use this http://www.skyrimnexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=15 TES V Savegame Manager by RedawgTS

i just use the console to name the saves of my different characters

You don't need to do anything special to create a new character, you just need to make sure you "Make New Save" and not overwrite your previous saves. If you have autosaves that you don't want to be overwritten, load those saves, and manually save them. Don't speed through manually saving your characters. Make sure you're overwriting the correct saves (I.E.: if you're playing Character A, make sure you save over the old Character A file, and not Character B, and vice versa), and if you don't want to overwrite any of your save files, just simply create a new save. No algorithms needed.

That was referring to the picture on the character screen, not the character itself. That was called an avatar.

what the hell is a toon.

So was I.