Here's a little guide to help people to avoid wasting half an hour each time they need to revert current installation to "clean" Soa/ToB + patch stage.
First, prepare basic BG2 install - install Soa,ToB and patch v26498. For the purpose of this guide, install must be perfectly clean - make sure to remove previous installation completely or use new folder.
Now, the files and folders we're interested in are:
DATA folder (~920 mb)
OVERRIDE folder (less than 30 mb)
dialog.tlk
chitin.key
Burn them to DVD or copy to another folder where you can easily find them later. I use folder named _BACKUP right in my main BG2 folder to store these, so I don't have to go far looking for them.
The above list is all that we'll need to restore [almost] any kind of terribly broken installation to original "clean" status.
Next step, whenever you want to "start anew", you must do the following:
Delete your DATA folder
Delete your OVERRIDE folder
Delete WORLDMAP folder (if present)
Delete GUI_Mods folder (if present)
Delete WEIDU.LOG file
Delete Setup-GUI.exe file
Delete Setup-GUI.tp2 file
Finally, copy previously backuped folders and files - DATA, OVERRIDE, dialog.tlk and chitin.key - to your BG2 folder, answer "yes" to overwrite the last two.
You can actually use this method to make more than just 1 backup, and "save/reload" your install status as you wish. In this case, make sure you also backup WORLDMAP and GUI_Mods folders, as well as WEIDU.LOG file in their current state.
Backing up large DATA folder is not ALWAYS necessary, but many mods check for biff files present there. If you're short on space or don't want to waste time copying it, then instead of deleting your current DATA folder you'll have to open it and manually delete only those biff files which were created by mods you have installed.
Edited by pro5, 19 November 2006 - 03:24 AM.
when I'm usually around 
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