This afternoon I was playing the game and my computer crashed. This has happened before without any technical issues. This time, however, not all was okay!

I went to play the game again (just recently) and it took me to the family I had been playing with when the crash happened (a game in my third slot). Everything was in tact. It was time for a new generation, and so I was playing with them for a while.

Then when I went to manage games, my other two running games were gone! It just had the New Player option. I'm not sure if the crash wiped out the game files or if they could still be recovered somewhere or if opening the game to play would have already cleared those game files completely too. No, I did not back them up (hindsight is always frustrating).

While I'm very depressed to have lost my first game (which was completely remodeled, redecorated and almost every single goal met and 8 generations into it) to the point of almost not wanting to play again, if there's nothing that can be done I understand. Just want to check first.

You may be able to recover those players from the backup savegame file, as long as you haven't started a new game in those player slots. The following procedure explains how to recover your games from the backup file.

NOTE: This procedure assumes that you are familiar with manipulating files on your computer. If you are uncomfortable with such tasks, you should seek assistance from an experienced person in order to avoid the possibility of irreparable damage.

Determine which player slot was deleted: the player at the top is in slot 1, and the player at the bottom of the list is in slot 5.
Open My Documents, then open the folder named LDW
Look for and open the Virtual Families 2: Our Dream House folder (the actual name may vary, depending upon where you purchased the game). Do not attempt to open the savegame files, to prevent the possibility of corrupting any of them. The savegame files in that folder are named Virtual Families 21.ldw through Virtual Families 25.ldw, and correspond to each of the player slots. The backup savegame files are named Virtual Families 221.ldw through Virtual Families 225.ldw, also corresponding to each of the player slots.
Verify that the savegame file for the deleted player is no longer present (e.g. if the player in the 3rd slot had been deleted, there should be no file named Virtual Families 23.ldw).
Rename the backup file to make it the primary savegame file (in this example for the player in the 3rd slot, you would rename Virtual Families 223.ldw to Virtual Families 23.ldw).
Launch Virtual Families 2: Our Dream House to verify that the player has been restored. The game may not be as current as the one that was deleted, depending upon how recently the backup file was updated, but you won't lose all progress on the deleted player.

If you wish to back up your savegame file(s) periodically to prevent loss in the future, you can read the information below for a simple backup method.

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The procedure for backing up the game files is as follows:

NOTE: This procedure assumes that you are familiar with creating folders and copying files on your computer. If you are uncomfortable with such tasks, you should seek assistance from an experienced person in order to avoid the possibility of irreparable damage to your game or your computer files.

1) Pause each of the games in active player slots to prevent the passage of time in the game.
2) Quit the game
3) Open the folder that contains the savegame files. The savegame files for Virtual Families 2: Our Dream House for Windows can be found in \My Documents\LDW\Virtual Families 2: Our Dream House. The files are named Virtual Families 2*.ldw, where * is a number corresponding to the player slot. There is also a backup savegame file for each game slot, which are named Virtual Families 221.ldw through Virtual Families 225.ldw.
4) Select all of the savegame files in that folder. Do not attempt to open the actual savegame files to prevent the possibility of corrupting them.
5) Copy the files to another folder of your choosing.

If you later want to restore those files to your game, navigate to the folder where you stored them, select them all and copy them back into \My Documents\LDW\Virtual Families 2: Our Dream House. Note that this will replace the files that are currently being used by the game with the ones you are restoring. If you don't want to overwrite the existing files that the game is using, you should move them elsewhere or back them up prior to restoring the files that you copied earlier.

I am looking in the folder and the odd thing is the 2 vanished games still have game files as well as back up game files both listed for yesterday at the time I started playing shortly before the crash. I don't want to proceed with copying over those saved game files with the back up unless otherwise instructed.

Attached is a shot of what my folder looks like.

Go ahead and copy that folder (and all of its contents) to another location for safekeeping and delete 21.ldw & 22.ldw. Rename 221.ldw to 21.ldw, do the same for 222.ldw to 22.ldw and see if that resolves the problem, Atta

Good luck!

No luck I'm afraid And the files are still reading the date modified as the date/time of the computer crash. Does this mean those files are corrupted but not the 3rd slot?