I would like to restart Skyrim from the beginning. That is to say I want to delete the whole game including mods & save games. Tryed to do that and ended up with a mess. Game still installs with all old mods and save games listed in load section though they are not available to actually play.

Can anyone tell me how to do this? I want to start completely from scratch. I use the Nexus Mod Manager and just updated it to the new version. I think that caused some problems as well. I'm afraid to start a new game because it tells me somethings missing do I want to load anyway.

Let's wait for the mod experts here. Good luck, Sharon.

As far as I know, the ultimate control of which mods you're loading comes down to what you tick on the Data files part of the Skyrim launcher. If you unselect (un-tick) every datafile, you will unload every mod. However, be aware that if you want to play Dragonborn, Dawnguard, or Hearthfires extension content in your new play-through, you'll need to keep those ESM files ticked.

ETA: you've got me intrigued to start a new vanilla play-through too!

Sharon I'm assuming you know how to access your windows control panel and uninstall Skyrim but this doesn't get all the files. Usually when you uninstall a program with control panel it asks if you want to delete your save games if not you should be able to find them in Documents/mygames/Skyrim.

Once you've uninstalled Skyrim this way then you should go to Local Disk C/Program Files (X86)/Steam/Steamapps/Common and in that folder you'll find your Skyrim Folder. You can then delete the Skyrim folder and you should have no problem with any mods or the like hanging around. (If it were me, I would create a backup folder either in documents or an external disk just in case.)

I don't know of any other files that skyrim has but someone else may come along and know more than I do.

Thanks Gremlin and Oldman for your help. I tried loading one of my old games and though I still got the message missing files, it did load okay and I was able to play a little.

I've put so much into it that I hate to lose it, though I have a mountain of old saves. I think I'll just leave things alone for now and try playing out that game. But now I have to learn the controlls again and how to fight and figure out what I'm trying to do. I've lost sight of my goals.

Also, for some reason the mod SkyUI will not activate. No message or anything. I guess the first challenge of any game is learning how to get it running right.

My avatar is an altmer and for some reason she is really ugly since I made some changes. Her eyes look like alien eyes. I guess I need to download another mod.

SharonB

Does the nexus mod manager still have the mods listed? Just the button with the spanner image and select 'Uninstall all active mode'.
As for SkyUi not working, be aware that it needs Skyrim Script Extender

SKSE is installed, thanks but still can't activate SkyUI.

I'm ambivalent about all this. On the one hand I do want to start over from scratch. On the other, I'm afraid to delete everything in case I can't get it back. But I probably will start over. Thanks for the help. I have to gather my courage to do this.

SharonB

Sharon, I hope it works for you

You could always make a copy of your Skyrim directory before you start uninstalling stuff, then if it doesnt work you just copy all the files back again. This is what I do when I'm experimenting :-)

Hubby always does that too.

It's hard to determine exactly how you went about uninstalling and reinstalling from the thread, so I'm going to go through the steps as though you are starting from scratch. If it helps now great, if not, then you can use it for future reference.

If you have issues, I highly suggest that you check out Gopher's YouTube Channel he is probably one of the best mod and SKSE authorities out there and has some great tutorials on installing and managing SKSE and mods.

Understand that none of your previous saves will work well once you go through this. Each save is dependent on what was active at the time and once you go messing about with the files, it's best to just get rid of what you have and start over otherwise you'll most likely come across some form of save file corruption eventually.

First, if you intend on keeping your mods you need to deactivate them through NMM (Nexus Mod Manager) if that's how you loaded them. If you want to remove them completely, you also need to use NMM to do that. I'm assuming you're also using LOOT to order the mods correctly, you'll want to rerun that process after you reinstall everything. If you are familiar with the Nexus and haven't already marked the mods you are using as "Tracked" in your Nexus account I would suggest you do that in the future. It makes it much easier to figure out what mods you were using if you need to or choose to uninstall everything.

After you take care of the mods, then you need to work with SKSE. That's a fickle animal and can cause havoc if it's not done right. If you used the SKSE installer then you can try using the included uninstall feature and cross your fingers. If it does work, I would highly suggest that you use Gopher's technique of installing SKSE, because it guarantees that you will be able to remove the files later Gopher's SKSE Install Video on YouTube. I would definitely run CCleaner, both the regular and registry cleaning functions afterwards.

Then uninstall Skyrim using the Delete Local Content feature on Steam. Again, run the CCleaner cycle.

Reinstall Skyrim, then reinstall your mods taking note in what order they should be installed. Remember, if you have any custom character skeletons or character appearance mods, they have to be installed in a very specific order and some require certain utilities be run after installing or when changes are made.

Apologies if this is somewhat general, but mods can be labor intensive. If you have a bunch that you commonly use and without knowing exactly what ones you are using and how you are using them it's hard to be specific. If you run into a bunch of issues, it's really good to post on the Nexus Forums there are still a good number of developers that check out problem threads and/or direct you to existing threads that can help you out.

Also, remember when using SKSE you can't use the vanilla launcher or the mods dependent on it (SKSE) will not work. The SKSE site has links for instructions and their forum thread on the Nexus that can also help.

Good luck!

Thanks, Trail, really appreciate all that great info.

Thank you Trail Mystic for all the information and the link to Gopher's video tutorials. I had seen a few of them before but I couldn't remember the name and it didn't come up when I googled. The reason it took so long for me to reply was that I immediately on seeing your reply started watching the video and working with my mods as is. I worked with it for hours and then got messed up with Loot. I'm not sure I'm using it properly and the video is for a much earlier version and doesn't have the same appearance. At any rate I don't think Loot did the load order right. In fact, when I tried the game it told me something would damage my game.

What I wanted to say is that I appreciate the time and effort involved in giving me so much information. I think I'll have to knuckle down and uninstall my game and mods and try again.

I did use the tutorial for SKSE and got that working right and then was able to get Sky UI to work. You are quite right this modding stuff is labor intensive. Had to take a nap...

Thank you mj2c. That is good advice and I will do that.

Update: Not going to restart after all. I was able to get all my mods working with no error messages and I think I will stick with my level 10 character. Her only flaw is her appearance and I think I can better that. Also, I'm not real sure what I've done with this character as opposed to other characters I've tried. I'll figure it out. One minor triumph is that I finally figured out how to switch between buying and selling with the SkyUI mod and my xbox 360 controller.

Thanks once again for all the interest and help I get from gameboomers.

Have fun, Sharon

You know, I hadn't thought of this potential problem. I do plan on starting Skyrim again soon, not picking up where I left off but starting from scratch, possibly with just the official expansions.

I had my game installed on another laptop, but I have a feeling if I download it onto this computer it will just set up my game the same way. I think I only had a couple of mods installed (I wanted a divorce from that hunky but boring blacksmith) so it might be easier to simply play a new game with those expansions installed, given how difficult it seems to remove the mods. I hope so anyway.

Hagatha, it will be interesting to see how playing the game this time will feel as compared to your first time through

Yes, it will. I literally wandered off and only remembered to start the main quest after I'd been playing for about 300 hours. I remember much of the map very well. My character had got to the point where she could say, " Pfft.Dragon, Shmagon. Give me a challenge." I think she must have been around level 70-75. It was fun, but I would like to play the actual game now.