Recreating deleted files

[T26913]

So I was CTDing because of some errors I couldn't find in export_descr_units and export_descr_buildings. Being I had no idea what the error was, I deleted the files thinking the game would respawn a vanilla version of them. Obviously, it must have, because now it's running, but I can't find the files. I've tried searching the whole medieval 2 folder, and the EDU and EDB are gone. How do I get them back?

[Gigantus]

Well, they are gone.

Here some fundamental teachings on how the file system works based on a working mod:

The file_first command in the CFG of the mod file establishes a search hierarchy:
first - files within the mod directory
second - files in the medieval2 directory
last - files in the packs

What happened to you is easy: the game first found the invalid files in your mod. When you deleted those it found the correct ones in the packs. Sorry, no spawning here. If you don't have a back up or they are still in the recycle bin you are lucky.

[T26913]

...poo. Reinstalling for the 400th time.

[Gigantus]

Might like to try backing up for the first time.
Highlighting a file that you want to work with and then first pressing Ctrl+C and then Ctrl+V will create a copy the easy way.

[Augustus Lucifer]

You don't need to reinstall if you didn't delete the packs. In fact reinstalling won't do anything for you because you'd still have to unpack it again to get at the files. Just create a batch file to unpack the specific files you need.

Open a text editor in a new document and add this into it:

unpacker.exe --source=..\..\packs\*.pack --destination=..\..\ --verbosity=1 --filter=export_descr_unit.txt

Put that in the \tools\unpacker folder and save it as custom_unpack.bat or w/e you want to call it. Run it and it should unpack the specified file in the filter. Just replace the file with the EDB instead and you should be fine.