Ok my PC took a crash this week and I lost EVERYTHING. I do mean EVERYTHING. Even my game which we only had like 3 more puzzles to solve and we had all tech levels but 2.

My question is: Is there any way to redownload my game without having to purchase it a 2nd time? My DS and I love the game and are addicted. We will probably buy The Lost Children. If someone can let me know, that would be FANTABULOUS!

It depends on where you bought your game. Most places allow at least 5 reinstalls using the same reg code just for cases like yours where the computer crashed/died and you need to start again.

Did you get your registration code in an email? check there. If you lost your email, write to the tech support where you bought the game.

i bought my vv1:a new home from ifungames.com and they say it is mine for life and fully downloanable many times as long as i can refer to the original email address i used. i bought vv2:lost children directly from ldw (virtualvillagers.com)but i haven't read anything, and since we are now talking about it, i would like to know if ldw grants lifetime ownership just like ifungames.com?

another question, to avoid losing games, how do we back up games in vv1:a new home? i have read here a guide in backing up a file for vv2:lost children. but does it also work on vv1?

No, it is different for VV1.

Your save files for VV1 are most likely located here:
C:\Program Files\Virtual Villagers

The save game files are named:
Isola1.ldw
Isola2.ldw
Isola3.ldw
Isola4.ldw
Isola5.ldw

You may also wish to backup Isola0.ldw which is not a tribe but is necessary for the tribes to work. You may also wish to backup the files with two numbers such as Isola43.ldw which would be the 3rd backup that VV1 made of tribe number 4. What many people do is backup every file that ends in .ldw to a backup folder. for example you could create a sub folder and call it backup042007 and copy all the files that end in .ldw to that directory. that way you know the files there are from 04/20/07. every time you make a new backup create a new folder called backup followed by the date and copy your .ldw files to it.