i've installed and reinstalled the game 3 times (that i can recall), the minisave was not created in any of them. i think the problem is more likely with the data on the cds.

in any event, i have played the game up to the end of act iii, without any of the problems (with the exception of the game crash problem) that many other folks seem to have had. from what i have read in the posts concerning problems it seems that many of them can be dealt with by manipulating the minisaves. i suspect i never had the problems because i didn't have the minisaves getting in the way.

i actually have suspicions that i may encounter more problems now that i have activated the minisaves. but so far so good.

i decided to restart simply because i wanted to give the game a chance in the state that it was intended to be played (with the refill timers active).

actually it isn't too bad so far. i encountered the problems i anticipated with a low level, poorly equipped party in beet hoven and in sturmford at the thrall camps. my party was at level 3 with only about 200 gold (after level training) when i finished wiping out the dragonflies. so i decided to travel about a bit and do some of the side quests. the end result of that exercise was a party at level 9 with one of my initiates promoted to healer, nearly 20,000 gold, 40 skill points each, 10 clovers and some attribute boosts from wells and barrels. and i didn't have to fight anything to get there. i'm shopping now, i expect to get all the skill books my various characters will need as they advance, a good selection of normal/normal spells, a couple of expert normal spells for my healer and at least some basic equipment for each party member. using the available skill points wisely should give me a party that is ready to proceed with the next level of tasks.

not looking forward to advancing skills without clover help later, but making each character more specialized than i have in my previous game starts should get me by that.