Laggy CTD mess! Gonna try a re-download client and have some questions.

SpAEkus

My game has steadily deteriorated to the point where it is a laggy mess during combat, audio and NPC load, that's when it doesn't just CTD while standing still.

This has NOT been this way since BETA and Early access but over the last week it has just gone to *****.

My system is well above spec with all current drivers etc.

I've repaired already, I've defragged the HDD drive that My documents is on and the client is on a SSD.

So I'm willing to take a day off playing and re-download the client and reinstall.

Q1 - What files/folders do I need to archive? I know I need to save the My Documents with all my saved variables and things. I can also just archive the entire current installation if I need to.

Q2 - Anyone that's done this before, will it let you download the client again if you have an active installation or do I need to uninstall first? Does the downloader do any kind of install check?

Q3 - I'm assuming that all character progress and inventory is maintained server side yes? Do I need to paste back any files or folders to maintain my current character status?

Any tips for an easy re-install are appreciated.

OR if many others have the same issues and this is all server side, save me the waste of time and I'll trudge along until ZOS improves the server side of things.

Brabok

you dont really need to backup any folders unless you have highly customised your keybindings
all progression and details are stored server side.

if you contacted the support team with the launcher report file they might be able to save you the hassle of reinstalling though .
maybe they can see some issues with your hard or software that you might not see

SpAEkus

Monday started off with CTD every time I changed characters. I went back in and took a look at Win7 Event viewer and didn't see any Application errors thrown by ESO.
But I have been getting Driver errors on Port 0 which is the Intel Raid HDD with the My Documents (ESO) files.

I have been getting a hitch when loading straight from the .exe (after keeping up to date with the launcher) where the screen would blank and then take a sec before rendering the login screen.

On the off chance that it needed it again I used a 3rd party, more robust defrag program that showed the Raid partition was fairly fragmented.

After doing that I was still getting the hitch at startup, but I was able to play without any CTD from about 3PM to 11PM that day.

Hopefully I've found the immediate culprit but I haven't played today yet. Of note, when I built this last PC, I followed some guidance to move all the Win7 libraries to the HDD from the SSD. This had been suggested when SSD were limited space. Now with a larger SSD, I will probably attempt to move at least the ESO files back to the SSD and see if the hitch dissapears.

Lastly I have a brand new 960gb SSD that I may put in the system and do a fresh install of Win7 when I want to burn a couple hours away from gaming.