GC: does anyone know how to fix corrupted saves?

[bordering]

i've never posted on psow before, although i've read it frequently enough. some of you may actually know me from in game. at one time, i ran 7 characters all lv 110 and above.

recently, on june 2nd at 7:30am on the jp server alphard, block 2... my main memory card was corrupted by FSOD X. that's right, buzzing FSOD during the save.

i lost: Ajent Kali, RAmarl, level 158./ (bordering) FOmarl. level 139./Link. FOnewm. level 115/(aesir) FOmar, level 117

i'm, frankly, crushed beyond crushed. granted i still have a lv 140 HUmar, a level 111 FOnewearl, and a level 115 HUcast left... but the chars that st's incompetance ate were my favorites... (well, except for the FOnewm, hehehe, i only ever played him because he was yellowboze... i regreted him being a homage char).

anyway, i've only ever befreinded one hacker over the course of the game, and he quit a long time ago.

i've heard people talking about how it might be possible to fix a corrupted save if you knew a bit about hexing and whatnot. if that's possible, and you're someone who knows how to do that, i would be incredibly grateful for your help. i guess it's kinda a long shot... but hell, i have to try eveything. i had 1000 hours on that card, and it's jaw dropping that it will all go to waste due to the utter inability of st to run a stable, glitch free game.

so, please, if you know how to help, email me at [email protected]

or aim me at zixnad.

i can be very discreet if you don't want everyone knowing about your skills. i will, of course, gladly pay for the shipping of my card to you. sigh...

[Shimarisu]

The trouble with this is you can only hack a save file saved on a USB card. I was looking into the idea of taking a regular card and a USB card, and taking components out of the USB card to make an adaptor for the regular card. I wanted to do that to protect Shimarisu (on regular Nintendo memory card) from fsod x. I use BBA though, so apparently FSOD X is not super likely. The only prob here is if your data is corrupt rewriting it ain't going to be easy. It's encrypted. You can experiment with ways of fixing the header, but there are no guarantees.
If you think you are up to it, this is the option I would recommend, but it's dodgy because:

1. You need to know how to solder.
2. You need to know how to hack data.
3. It all needs to work - ie. the circuit board on the USB card needs to actually be compatible with the normal mem card - no guarantees there.
4. There's also no guarantee it's going to be possible to fix the save. It may be a nightmare task.

I have not yet bought a USB card. I'm lazy. I need to though, because my data is precious.

Here is a tip for you. In case all else fails.

1. Take your level 100+ HUmar to Ultimate.
2. Collect tons of mats.
3. Remake your characters.
4. Beg for replacement items.
5. Use mats on your characters to make them powerful from an early level, so you can equip decent stuff.

This is the best idea, and it lets you remake a more perfect character. You can use the mats you want right at the start of the game. You are lucky you still have a level 100+ character intact. If I were you I would buy a USB mem card, use this method to start from scratch and also, take your mat-powered charas straight to the mines on multiplayer on your HUmar's game, in multiplayer mode. Leave the HUmar standing around while you whack stuff. You can also do this online.

My other idea, and this does not help you in particular but it's a plea to hackers out there - stop duping and try this instead - was ghosting characters as a temp character to another card, on multi player mode. Then if you get FSOD X, using Action Replay to remove the data which tells the GC you don't have the right save file to overwrite. Or fooling it that the save is not corrupt and overwriting (this won't work if data is only partially overwritten, or it needs to pull data from the corrupt file).
I don't know if it would COMPLETELY overwrite the save though. Depends what's on the ghost file. Unfortunately GC Action Replay does not let you search for your own codes. You would need to dump the GC's memory to PC to find any. I'm actually quite glad about this - stops lamers from duping and hacking. It however, doesn't help me hack peoples' games so they can easily restore their chara. I think though, that this may be one example where Datel can be persuaded to release a code. If Datel don't some hacker out there may, and it's the sort of helpful code that people won't mind so it will get spread all over.

- Shimarisu

[Shimarisu]

Oops, noticed you have more than one Level 100+ chara. Well, take heart in this - you've certainly got more time on your hands than I would, to restore your data!

- Shimarisu

[bordering]

interesting input, Shimarisu... but unfortuneatly i have absolutely no hacking skills whatsoever.

i'm a bit dissapointed by the implications of you saying that you would have to solder your original card into a usb card to be able to back up your character... so... that mean that there really is no [easy] way to back up your characters using a usb card? if so, damn. i was gonna order one to back up my remaining chars. and i really don't trust my soldering skills enough to mess around with my intact memory cards heh.

so... is it basically a thing beyond doing? to be able to restore a corrupted card? you would think that if people like your resident Barubary can (as rumor has it, anyway) hack a level 666 char on gcn, that the char data are mallaeable and possibly recoverable by someone who has mad hacking skills.

what exactly happens to the data when FSOD occurs during a save that makes it unuseable? it's not TOTALLY scrambled, because i can see the icons floating in the gcn memory manager screen. why has it become unuseable? and how, in theory, could it be made useable again?

for reference, i'm pretty sure that my FSODX occured during the -first- save. and that it occured very early in that save.

and, as to your suggestion to start new chars and twink them... well, i've thought about it... and i do have a bank full of mats (when you have 7 chars on ult, they rain down upon you). but, this is so hard to explain, i'm ATTACHED to my dead chars. replacing them... well, it -obviously- wouldn't be the same. and, i just HATE the arbitrary nature of their demise. i don't think i'm the type of person who can just let that go and then cast myself into the cold, uncaring bosom of sega's CRAPTACULAR servers again... what if i rebuilt and lost another 1000 hours of my life? ::shudder:: there is a part of me that wants to go on playing... but only if i can get these chars back somehow (as looks increasingly less likely). perhaps it's indicitive of a bit of a character flaw... well, so be it. i've thought about it a lot.

oh,and, be afraid, all: i'm on at&t cable broadband AND i'm using a router. my connection is VERY stable. i had only gotten FSOD light a few times before this over the course of about 1400 total hours of gcn gameplay. it's a matter of chance, it's not -entirely- your connection's fault, the fault lies in the flawed architecture of sega's servers. (no OTHER online games eat your saves... that i've heard of, anyway. only this one. fuck that.)

[Sham]

You're corrupt.

Choices:
-Quit PSO
-Restart

[Shimarisu]

I think I got FSOD-X yesterday.

Entered a game, warping down the teleport, and up pops the save message. Then I get a black screen, a buzzing noise. My heart just raced - I nearly fainted. I yanked out the modem cable, and left it. I then got the message, well it was in Japanese but here is roughly what it said:

"An error has occurred. Please switch off power and refer to the instruction manual of your game cube."

I turned the little swine off, back on again - and reloaded my game. It worked!

I now want that T-shirt - "I survived FSOD-X". Anyone planning on making any?

- Shimarisu

[VioletSkye]

Another good thing to try that I've heard works well is to pull your pso cd out of the gc then go to the memory card menu and delete your guld card file. Apparently that has worked for numerous people.

[ace13]

On 2003-06-08 16:42, VioletSkye wrote:
Another good thing to try that I've heard works well is to pull your pso cd out of the gc then go to the memory card menu and delete your guld card file. Apparently that has worked for numerous people.

Hello the memory card trick works. I got a really bad noise from my GC and then the game kept recycling over and over on all of the characters. I though at first that the GameCube had crashed or worse yet my PSO game had bit it. I'd been told by a friend about the memory card trick of erasing the guild card file. I had to do it 4 times but it worked! I saved my level 168 character and have continued playing with it. I would like to know if anyone knows where to get a USB card though. I don't want to dupe but would like to be able to save my character on something other than my memory card or (ACK!) Sega's terminally crappy servers. ACE

[Mystil]

Try the guild card trick first.

I have 4 backup characters that I store my beloved 4 main characters stuff on, but I know if I lose them. UGH.

One thing I can say..atleast you aren't complaining heavily about it, and begging the world to help you and all that jazz. Least your dealing with it, like a strong PSO player should.

Hope you succeed in reviving your characters!

[bordering]

belive me, i have already tried ALL of the commonly circulated fixes for FSOD X. none of them worked for me. i freaking sat with my gamecube trying to swap a good mem card out with the corrupt one for upwards of a half an hour. no luck. i deleted my guildcard file. no luck. when FSOD X was happening, i opened up the disc cover and left it open for about 20 mins (they say that sometimes the game comes unstuck and registers the save, even though you can't see it visually). no luck. i took out the ethernet cable. no luck.

see, the guild card thingy wouldn't work for me, because my FSOD occured right as the save icon appeared. at the start of the save. someone told me that pso first saves char data, then guildcard data, then system data. so it is certainly my char data that is problematic.

and i'm jealous of Shimarisu. i surely won't be making any damn tshirts. heh.

"An error has occurred. Please switch off power and refer to the instruction manual of your game cube."
wow, this is odd. i've never heard of that before. ooooooh, you had your language settings as jp huh...? well, maybe st doesn't corrupt jps, only americans. i'm sorta joking... but on the other hand, i wouldn't quite put it past them.

yea, i try to not whine about it TOO much. and i would never think of asking for free stuff. but... christ. it's really hard to play now. i tried making a new FOmarl the other day... she was my favorite... and it just made me sick. too many memories wrent as painful barbs by the arbitray demise of that card. ugh. UGH, as you say. heh.

so... it seems there aren't as many or as skilled hackers as i thought there were. that sucks. sigh...