Hard drive

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My 13 month hard drive failed and I have to install a new one. The computer is a HP Envy, Windows 10 and I'm wondering if there is any way I can save everything from Microsoft Solitaire Collection before taking out the old hard drive? I have built up some high scores and would hate to have to begin all over again. I also enjoy doing the puzzles (I'm old) and have done hundreds of them and have several hundred to go that I have earned with points. Can anyone give me any advice? Thanks
 

Trouble

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Hello Sylvia and welcome to the forums.
I don't know for sure, but......
I was under the impression that all those Microsoft Games like their Solitaire Collection was associated through xBox to your Microsoft Account and the results were stored in the cloud..
I of course may be wrong so wait until someone who actually uses and plays those apps has an opportunity to see your post and maybe they'll have something definitive to offer in the way of a recommendation.
 
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Hello Sylvia and welcome to the forums.
I don't know for sure, but......
I was under the impression that all those Microsoft Games like their Solitaire Collection was associated through xBox to your Microsoft Account and the results were stored in the cloud..
I of course may be wrong so wait until someone who actually uses and plays those apps has an opportunity to see your post and maybe they'll have something definitive to offer in the way of a recommendation.

I had read that as well, but what if I don't subscribe to the Cloud. I had a problem about 6 months ago with a virus that necessitated wiping the hard drive clean and had to start all over at that time with the Solitaire Collections. I appreciate that you gave me such a quick response and thank you.
 

Regedit32

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Hi Sylvia,

Welcome to the Forum.

Like trouble, I am not a gamer per se.

However, in your situation there are two scenarios.

Scenario One
  • When you sign-in to your Desktop you are signing in to a Microsoft Account
If that is the case, then your game data and statistics are stored automatically on the cloud. The advantage of this, is that you can play your games on any device you like, buy a new computer, and so forth, and all your statistics will be launched from the cloud when you sign-in the Microsoft Solitaire Collection.

In fact, if you have to re-install the game for some reason, you'll notice towards the end of the download, that you see a message telling you it is retrieving your data just before it offers you the opportunity to launch the game.

See here for the official statement:

https://community.microsoftcasualga...t-account-update-xbox-live-information-whats/

Scenario Two
  • When you sign-in to your Desktop you are signing in to a Local Account not connected to Microsoft
In this scenario, your game statistics are stored locally on your computers hard drive. This means should you for example click Start > Settings > Apps then select the Microsoft Solitaire Collection and click Advanced > Reset your game statistics will be zeroed out [ i.e. deleted]. While some people may like to do that, this is why Microsoft encourage Users to sign-in to a Microsoft Account, to prevent accidental loss of the game statistics.

If you are using a Local account, then you can locate your statistics here:

Code:
%localappdata%\Packages\Microsoft.MicrosoftSolitaireCollection_8wekyb3d8bbwe\LocalState\UserData\Guest\Statistic

Simply copy & paste this into the address bar of File Explorer then press Enter key to navigate to the directory.

solitaire.png


After pressing Enter key you will see some files inside the Statistic folder

At top of File Explorer in its ribbon click the View tab and check the box next to File name extensions

Now look for the file named Statistic.ark

That is the file that stores your Game data locally. Theoretically, you could copy this file, and on another computer replace the Statistic.ark file there with your copied file.

To do that, on the new hard drive I would go to the location of the Statistic.ark file and right-click on the file and select rename and rename it to Statistic.old, then copy & paste the copied Statistic.ark file from your old hard drive, to the directory of the new hard drive, then delete the Statistic.old file.

As I don't play the game myself, I say theoretically as I've not attempted to do this myself, but that would seem the logical way to achieve this if you are playing from a Local account not connected to Microsoft.

Note: The path to this folder, and the actual Statistic.ark file will not exist if you are signing-in to a Microsoft Account because as all ready stated, that data is stored in the cloud.



Regards,

Regedit32
 
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Another option is not to wipe the old HDD but use it for storage as a 2nd drive when you replace it with a new one, you can most likely find the folders once you have a new version of W10 installed on the new drive following @Regedit32's suggestion above, maybe that would work? (Will that work @Regedit32 ?). :confused:

The old drive should be set as "Slave" and the new HDD as "Master" if it is an old IDE type HDD!. :)
 
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What I have done, a couple of times in the past (Just in case things go wrong!), is this,
Navigate to
C:\Users\Username\AppData\Local\Packages
Scroll down and find

MicrosoftMicrosoftSolitaireCollection.......... (yours will have a different designator here, but save the whole folder)
Save the solitaire folder (MicrosoftMicrosoft etc) into a safe place. When you have your new HD ready, copy it back to exactly the same place, overwriting the contents of what is already there.

I also do pretty much as Wolfie suggests. I have three old HDs, all used in different machines as extra externals. It gives me masses of space for experimenting or saving installation software.
 

Regedit32

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Another option is not to wipe the old HDD but use it for storage as a 2nd drive when you replace it with a new one, you can most likely find the folders once you have a new version of W10 installed on the new drive following @Regedit32's suggestion above, maybe that would work? (Will that work @Regedit32 ?). :confused:

The old drive should be set as "Slave" and the new HDD as "Master" if it is an old IDE type HDD!.


Yes Wolfie, your theoretical would work.

However, the HP Envy is a Notebook not a Desktop isn't it?! So she'd need to get one of those cables that go from the drive to the USB I presume to be able to access it.
 
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If you sign in to your computer using a Microsoft account rather than a local account the Solitaire game information should be synced to the 'cloud' & should sync back your progress when you install on your new device.
I use solitaire on my laptop & iPad & I can finish on one device & pick up on the other.
 

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