Mystery re-installing 2019

[Ron_Smith]

This is relevant to any version but happened when re-installing 2019.
I had my own route and was editing two days ago with no apparent problems - saved and exited for the day.
Trainz is installed on a external Solid State Drive dedicated to only Trainz
Yesterday I started trainz and immediately had a message window stating "unable to start because of a corrupted file etc." I tried for an hour to start or find out how to overcome this to no avail.
I contacted the supplier of my PC and the SSD(big company with service department) and discussed this to ascertain if it was faulty drive - told "unusual for a SSD to fail in this way and sounds like the files are corrupted - solution to format drive and see if it takes new data".
I formatted the drive and checked for content - empty. Now I need to re-install 2019 - import CDP from backup and open CMP and download my route to update the menu items.
BUT after downloading via My Trainz - extracting to the dedicated SSD I started Trainz to find my Icon in Surveyor and on selecting Edit Route everything was loaded exactly as before the problem
started.
My question is how installing on an empty formatted drive did the Route return to previous state ?
I am not complaining but very curious as to how this happened. The mysteries of computing !!

Ron Smith (getting to old for all this excitement!!!)

 

[SailorDan]

My question is how installing on an empty formatted drive did the Route return to previous state ?

Trainz exists in three places - it is possible that only one of these was on the external SSD.

If you are starting Trainz from a desktop icon or menu shortcut, right click the shortcut and look at the properties. That is the location of the application files.

In the launcher screen, select Trainz Setting / Install and look at the Local data folder. That is the location of the data files.

What you have described would occur if the application files were on the external SSD and the data files were on an internal drive. When you did a reinstall the local data folder was not affected and everything was as before.

 

[Ron_Smith]

Thanks for the info - makes sense.

Ron