W00p, easy question: reinstalling and gw.dat

Heya! Should be an easy question for you all, but search engine didnt turn anything up :O (yes, i did search, AND look throguht the stickys)

Basically, I usually do a complete reinstall of my computer every 4-5 months to clean it properly, and each time reinstalling Guild Wars is a pain.... takes.... so.... long....

As the GW.dat file is basically just resources, can an ordinary cut/paste prevent me from needing the hours of download?

Thanks alot,

aotd

Yes, moving it to another directory then after reinstalling moving it back will work.

thanks for the quick answer that will simplify things

You can also help keep the .dat tidy, by defragging it now and then.

Why do you reformat so often may I ask? There are decent enough programs out there to keep your system safe and clean.

coz it only take about 3 hrs, and the protection programs dont protect you from the stuff you install yourself on your computer, use once then forget
I like keeping things fresh by reformatting from time to time ^^

If you have the time and energy it's actually not a bad idea to reinstall your OS every six months or so. Not completely neccesary at all, but some people like to have a 'fresh start' every now and again. Others swear up and down that it improves preformance, but I haven't seen much of a difference.

Here's a tip, for those who are a bit computer savy, that could save you much time in the future.

Next time you go to reformat and reinstall, take a few minutes during the reinstall to partition your drive into 2 parts. This can be done by simply following the prompts during the install, but if you are unfamiliar with the procedure, it should be easy to google a tutorial.

Divide the drive into a C partition to install the OS on - 10 to 40 gigs - and another partition to install everything else on - whatever space is left.

Then, when you install GW (and other games and apps), simply change the default "C:\program files\guild wars" to "D:\program files\....."
Store anything you want to keep, including the output of the "Files & Settings Transfer Wizard" on this D: drive. After that, you can reformat C: and reinstall without touching anything on D:
And, after the reinstall, you can simply start GW off the D drive using Windows Explorer and it will automagically reconfigure itself. I can't recall if it puts a new shortcut on the desktop, but you can simply right-click on gw.exe and select Send To >> Desktop(create shortcut)

NOTE: if you are using Vista - even though GW is on another drive, Vista puts GW screen shots & templates on C under "Documents", so you do want to make sure you copy them to D before reformatting.

NOTE2: in answer to the OP question - yes, you can simply cut&paste.