Stone Studio

This is how I store my game progress in the cloud – for free. First of all, you will need Windows 7 (you will need to download a very small software otherwise), Dropbox (FREE, only need 3 mins to install). I will suggest you backup your Game Profiles first.

Step 0. Installlation,

1. You will need Dropbox ( Please use this link https://www.dropbox.com/referrals/NTE4NzQ3ODg5 so that you can 250Mb extra)
2. Try to type mklink in a command prompt, if your system doesn’t have this command, please download and extract Junction from Microsoft’s website.

Step 1. Locate Your Game Profile

The game I’m playing right now is called Need For Speed: Most Wanted, and the profile folder is in C:\Users\Dean\Documents\NFS Most Wanted, Other possible place to look at is in “C:\Program Files\YourGameFolder\Profile\SAVE”. For Steam-distributed games, it will reside somewhere in “C:\Program Files\Steam\steamapps\common\<game name><look here>”.

Once you located these Games, back up now

Step 2. Create a Symbolic Link For PC 1

Symbolic link is very common in Linux system, thanks to Windows 7 (possibly Vista) it is a built in command now. In short, the symbolic link act as a shortcut to the actual file, but it is not a link but actually file itself. It will not duplicate the file and don’t consume space.

First of all, I created a folder called: My Profile in My Dropbox folder.

I hold down Shift and right click inside My Profile folder to bring up a command window

I choose a name like NFSMW as the symbolic link name, I then typed in the command as shown (mklink /D NFSW), I simply dragged the Game Profile folder to the command window to complete

If you see the following command, you are done

Just for extra information, you don’t know the NFSMW folder is actually the symbolic link unless you look at its properties.

Step 3. Create a Symbolic Link For PC 2

You can now repeat the same step for your second PC but make sure you reverse the junction — make the saved games folder in your games folders the junction and set the folder in your Dropbox as the target. In other words, type in the directories in reverse order: first where the games would actually be saved, and then where they are right now in your Dropbox. I will explain now:

1. Make sure you have Step 1 taken and had Dropbox installed for the PC 2

2. If you have already installed the Game like me, you will need to rename the folder to something else.

3. Hold down Shift while pressing right mouse button to open up the command window within My Documents folder, name the symbolic link same as the old Game Profile folder. And create the symbolic link like the screenshot below.

Step 4. Finish and Double Check

You will notice the file is synchronized right away (the profile is normally very small, like only 64 kB for NFSMW game), otherwise just restart the dropbox and it will force to synchronize.

Try your game, and now you should have the same Game progress across all your PC.