I have purchased and downloaded all of the DLC for fallout 3 and have played them right through, now for unrelated reasons I would like to reformat my computer. Can I back up the DLC onto an external drive or do I have to download it again after the Format is completed?
I believe you will have to redownload them again. Unless you know for sure what files to back up, you might not restore them correctly. Redownloading is safe to do, and since you will need to be online anyway to recover your gamertag and update your installed games and the GFWL 3.0 client, you might as well add the DLC re-download to the list of things to do.
GFWL - Depending on your internet connection, this either helps you or makes your schedule a little harder.
You can perfectly back them up and having them absolutely working. Trust me.
"I was looking for some action, but all I found was cigarettes and alcohol"
find the .bsa and .esm files and move them to somewhere safe (like a dvd or external HD) then move them back when you have completed the reformat. however FO3 does not require an install or even a cd to run so you could just move the entire game to said external HD and then move it back
