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Kevin,
I'm not sure how you would go about fixing your current problem, since I have never attempted backing neighborhoods up that way. I have heard of the "empty neighborhood" problem, and it seems to occur when you
backup only a single neighborhood or the neighborhood folder. There may be some file outside of that and you've missed it.
I don't think you are supposed to rename neigborhood folders. There are a lot of files in there that all carry the neighborhood number. Renaming the folder could screw all of that up.
There is really only one way to be 100% sure that you will have a working backup. You should make a copy of the entire The Sims 2 folder, except for the folders Downloads and SavedSims. Doing this will ensure that you've got all files that are needed to run the game.
My procedure is as follows:
Create a folder called Sims 2
backup [DATE] on the desktop. Select and copy all folders in the The Sims 2 folder, except Downloads and SavedSims. Paste them into the new folder. Takes less than a minute.
Supposedly there is some correct way of backing up just a neighborhood. But I've heard enough stories like yours to put me off trying to do it that way.