[WARNING] Elder Scrolls Deletes ALL PROGRAMS Bug

clone10thub17_ESO

Don't get me wrong but I really love their work, and games but seriously....

-The EULA we agreed on declares they aren't held responsible.

-Their support person said a patch will be released to fix the bug but they fail to address the issue properly. It is on the hard copies of the game not the digital version as far as I've seen.

-All I'm asking is that Zenimax, and Bethesda to do a voluntarily recall. Not a refund, just give us replacement discs that don't have this issue. We can even provide them our game key if necessary as proof of purchase.

-If they decided not to do anything, then the next proper step is to raise awareness in the community. Anyone with a hard copy of the disc from retailers are at risk of encountering this bug sooner or later.

-In the all games I've installed in my life, this is the only installer that has done harm to my desktop.

-To each their own opinion but some are truly ignorant. I will gladly shove this disc on your hard drive and wipe out all your files.

Go ahead, I will even dare Zenimax to try reproducing this bug on their server hard drives with the disc. They don't know how many people grief over the lost data, especially when it totals almost 1TB.

Feel bad for the guy above, and other poor saps, then cheers for getting over it or recovering the data.

-If you want to install in another directory, MAKE SURE YOU CREATE A NEW ZENIMAX FOLDER!!! BEWARE OF THAT DIRECTORY WITH NO FOLDER PATH. Needs something like:

(Drive letter):\ZENIMAX

P.S. I have two ESO accounts. One with the game purchased under, and the other one was CBT. I just don't remember which is what. I support the gaming industry but not poor practices like this.

Epona222

TheScorpion wrote: »

All I can say about this.... unbelievable this has happened to more than one person and even more unbelievable that people defend Zenimax in this! Blatant example of POOR coding practices and lack of efficient testing prior to release. Not everyone is computer savvy and not everyone would know to create that folder and Zenimax need to take responsibility for their programmers short comings! ....which by reading these forums, there are MANY!

Unfortunately it is fairly standard, if I want to install pretty much any software anywhere other than the default location (and I do not usually want stuff in Program Files), then when I select an install location I often have to create a folder. In fact everything I install goes in its own folder.

I do understand the frustration, but it should be second nature to create a new folder for the install destination when you are installing anything, if you are at all used to using a PC. Although I appreciate why the OP is upset, and Zenimax surely could have implemented some safeguards against this sort of thing, it seems to be partly user error - it's why some people prefer consoles, because PCs require you to understand a bit about hardware, OS, file systems etc.

theyancey

I have had no problems with doing any of the downloads from last September's beta on. I have simply replaced 'C' with 'F' and the game installs to F/Program Files (x86)/The Elder Scrolls. Online.

Tyr

Venithar wrote: »

Tyr wrote: »

Venithar wrote: »

Ysne58 wrote: »

Actually, if it's deleting the way it is, and I have no reason to believe otherwise, it most certainly is the developers fault. There is no excuse for that level of incompetence. It's even worse that Microsoft.

Nothing is worse then Microsoft - Home of the Feature.

@athena_o2‌ Professional recovery can still recover files that have been over written. I would suggest using trial versions of a couple of the recovery software programs until you find one that actually find data and buy that one, or send the drive out for recovery. The only downside to this, is the software can be expensive as can sending it out. (maybe you can convince zenimax to foot the bill for professional recovery)

You don't know what you're talking about. physically overwriting a file is different than deletion and nobody can recover from that.
However running basic recovery software or "forensic"(this is a meaningless term, btw) software doesn't mean that the data has actually been overwritten.

Physically overwriting a file can be recovered from, it takes multiple overwrites to remove a file from a hard drive. This is why there is a term "government wipe" it is multiple passes of 1s and 0s to be sure the drive is completely wiped.

Edit: I probably should have stated that differently though, as software cannot recover overwritten files, though they can be recovered, or at least back in about a decade or so ago, there was discussion on a way to do it.

No it doesn't take multiple overwrites. You can read up to 32 bits with 50% accuracy with a magnetic force microscope but data isn't written in bits. Data is written in sectors with ECC approximation of bits from wave form signals.

1 overwrite is enough to make data unrecoverable in all circumstances and a "government" wipe is overkill. Also government agencies use commercial data recovery labs even for classified cases. They have nothing special beyond the engineers in the top commercial labs.

Tyr

RatsnevE wrote: »

Venithar wrote: »

@athena_o2‌ Professional recovery can still recover files that have been over written. I would suggest using trial versions of a couple of the recovery software programs until you find one that actually find data and buy that one, or send the drive out for recovery. The only downside to this, is the software can be expensive as can sending it out. (maybe you can convince zenimax to foot the bill for professional recovery)

I've been wondering if this is still the case concerning SSDs? How can you recover over written data on an SSD? Sadly it also points to ALWAYS backing up somewhere critical data you CANNOT lose...and never 'assume' anything unless you know data you cannot lose is safe elsewhere even if the computer burns up.

You can't recover overwritten data on an SSD or a hard drive. With an SSD it's actually even worse because there are constant operations for wear leveling in the background, which means that as long as the SSD is receiving power it is corrupting deleted data, even if no overwriting is done by the user.

derdon

The game is a *** troll already, once you've got it installed.
But deleting all the good games on your HDD, when one wants to isntall this piece of ***, is just outrageous...
Why did I even try to reinstall this... Idk...