I know it's only a game but this made me sad anyway.

When I got to check on my villagers today, I found that a computer virus had destroyed pretty much everything I had on there - and killed all my villagers. Thank goodness I have backup files for most of my stuff (most importantly my PhD thesis!!!) on CDs, not so for VV, though. I had to re-install the game but cannot get my villagers back.

One village of mine had been running for ever (about four months) I knew every single character in there by name. I was really sad that they had all gone.

Be smart, save your games on floppies/CDs every now and then!

I can't leave you with 0 replys. I am so sorry you lost your villiagers I hope you meet and greet many new ones to carry on.

The game can be saved to CD?!

Yes. The instructions (for both Windows and Mac) are in the Virtual Villagers FAQ.

That's really sad, especially with a well established village - condolences

the same thing happened to me,i had a village with 90 people and all puzzles done...

Thanks, everyone! I've set up a couple of new villages after re-installing, let's start from scratch then.

@someone: sorry you lost your villages

@GreyKitten: London, UK?! Hello, neighbour!