Backup & Restore L4D2 --- And how to make sure your addons can be used again...

This is more or less a copy / paste of something I have in another part of the forum.

However, the directions are pretty comprehensive and might benefit someone out there.

This is especially useful if you don't want to re-download L4D2 every single time you reformat or reinstall Windows!

Basically, you wanna make sure you're not in any Steam game. Then, right-click on the tray icon (by system clock.)
1.) Choose Library
2.) At the top of the window for the Library, under the first drop-down menu, choose "Backup & Restore Games"
3.) There are 2 radio button options; choose 1; "Backup currently..."
4.) When selecting your game and how to back it up, make sure you use something like "CD"/640MB format.
5.) The reason to break it up into multiple smaller pieces is that it is much faster to reinstall than, say, 1 huge file.
6.) Right-click on your desktop and "Create New..." folder. Name it something you can remember to get back to when reinstalling.
7.) When proceeding with the backup, note folders like "addons" have to be MANUALLY saved; they are NOT included.
8.) If you sync your settings with Steam Cloud, things like "options" in-game may be backed-up.
9.) To verify you've done it right, check said backup folder on desktop; you need a .exe or .msi that lets you launch the actual program.

*****IF backing up more than 1 game, exit steam completely and repeat. For some reason, backing up 2 or more games without restarting seems to make it NOT include the .exe; known issue.

If you want screenies I still have them.

When reinstalling,
1.) steampowered.com, install Stem
2.) Make sure any trace of the steam folder in Program Files isn't there; it needs an empty folder
3.) When you would NORMALLY reinstall / re-download, go to Library like before (right-click on tray icon and choose it.)
4.) Under "steam" or the first drop-down menu at the very top-left, choose Backup & Restore Games.
5.) This time, choose radio button #2 "restore from a previous backup." You can locate your folder you had saved on an exxternal drive or your desktop or wahtever.... OR avoid all this and just launch the .exe file to reinstall the game.

Sorry for the "off topic" nature of this. Hope it helps.

Again, you need to manually save your "addons" folder or any custom .cfg's.

EDIT:

C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\common\left 4 dead 2\bin

addoninstaller.exe

VPK files or addons need to be associated by right-clicking on one and chosing "open with..." then addoninstaller.exe.

This is due to the fact " L4D2 Addon Support " is no longer a download...