Meaning of creating a KSP backup

[AeroSky]

Hi there!

I have a quick clarification about backing up your game.

Does backing up your game mean duplicating/copying your Kerbal Space Program file located in:

 This PC>Local Disk (C:)>Program Files (x86)>Steam>steamapps>common>Kerbal Space Program 

Thanks!

[HansAcker]

42 minutes ago, AeroSky said:

Does backing up your game mean duplicating/copying your Kerbal Space Program file located in

It can mean a number of things

What I do before testing new, potentially incompatible mods is to make a copy of my (save-)game, i.e. the directory within "saves" in the KSP dir that contains the state and vessels of the current career or sandboy. It's where "persistent.sfs" lives.

Making a copy of the whole KSP directory instead is a good idea if you want to keep a specific version of KSP around and don't want Steam to update it if Squad releases a newer version.
Just copy KSP from the Steam folder to a different directory. You might need to tell CKAN about it, if you use it (in CKAN's "Manage KSP instances" menu).

[jimmymcgoochie]

Backing up KSP really is as simple as copying the entire KSP directory (as you have correctly identified) and pasting it somewhere else. This is a particularly good idea if you got KSP from Steam and are using mods- Steam will pick up new game updates and apply them but this could break your mods, so if you're modding KSP then definitely don't use the one that Steam has control over!

Backing up a specific save can also be done by going into KSP/saves, grabbing the folder with the name of your save game and just copying that somewhere else- to another copy of KSP, to a backup drive or zipped folder etc. but doesn't copy the several gigabytes of game files (even more with a high mod count).

[AeroSky]

Thanks for the clarifications!

P.S. @jimmymcgoochie, you were the one who made the Audacity story? It's amazing!