I've been unsuccessful restoring my world. Is there a way to prevent this from happening in the future? It seems ridiculous to me that a computer simply shutting off while playing can cause such a disaster?
I really appreciate your help.
Keep the computer shutting off to a minimum. The issue is the game is constantly saving. Closing any game while it is saving tends to lead to save file corruption. If the computer is just suddenly powering off that can lead to a lot of other issues. File corruption and hard drive failure being the likeliest ones.
What are the most common causes of sudden PC shutdown for you?
If it is power failure (the hardest one to deal with and fully stop) a uninterruptible power supply is pretty much a must. Not a cheap one either. Cheap ones won't keep the computer on long enough to shut it down. I was always having problems with power. Strangely enough I don't notice it as much, could be that it is no longer a issue for my computer. I had a power failure while installing a game. It was a rather large disk install (Dungeons Siege 2 + Broken World). I was on the last install disk when the power cut. I had to completely uninstall it and start over. Without the power failure it was the longest to install game I eve owned.
If it is accidental button presses there are a few options. Reassign the button to something else or disable it, this is even possible with the case power button in Linux. If it is a recessed button place stiff cardboard over it and tape that down. Failing all else, put the button in a less easy to reach area. I had a UPS that my cat would walk over and press the power button on. It would instantly shut the device down. I used a lighter instead of cardboard that time. I stopped buying stuff with the power button on the top like that when I was replacing stuff.
If it is a component failure then their are much worse things to worry about then save file corruption.
If you computer is at least slightly better then a potato, like mine, then running a server along side the single player client helps. Lots of things that crash the client won't crash the server. I have rarely had a server crash. The client tends to crash (not so much on infinity). The world save is on the server so is a is a lot harder to loose from corruption when the client crashes. Make sure to shut down the server properly though. (save-all and stop typed in the command window does it, I hope)
Don't run the game while you aren't there. If all else fails try renting a good server from a company like CreeperHost. It will cost a bit even if you get it while it is on sale. It can prove worth it though. I think I was paying $35 a month for mine. It was spider or spider jockey level. I can't remember. It worked really well. My main issue was their control panel system being crap, and the auto server reset system being horrible. The less I used the panel to work with the game files the more likely it was to work. The server reset scheduling option didnt' give warning through, at all. I had it set to every six hours as that was the easiest one for everyone to remember and expect.
