New
#11
When you re-installed the game did you apply any of the update patches you previously had (or not had) installed?
If it was updated before you need to update it now. That could be why your save doesn't work because it is from a different version of the game.
So what I would do is update the game then delete the save folder again and put your backed-up save in and see if it loads it (you have to redo your gfx/controller config even with back-up saves).
I'm 99% sure I had the same update last time, because the patch is from November 2009 and I upgraded to Windows 7 at the end of January. I've tried everything man, I've emailed rockstar support like 10 times and they're not giving me proper solutions. They're saying things like "are you logged into your GFWL account" and "are you sure you have the correct folders?". I have to wait two days between replies so it can get pretty annoying. I sent them a dxdiag textfile which they asked for and they've completely ignored it. I'm starting to get tired of them