Hacking Trouble transferring save file

[oateo]

Hello,

I got a lot of help in the "which card should I get" thread, and just got my R4i Gold 3DS in the mail today. I've been using the original R4 card for a few years, so I'm still getting used to the new options and UI. There's one problem I'm having that I expect has a really simple answer, but I just can't figure it out nor find an answer through google, so I hope some of you knowledgeable folks might help me out. For reference, I'm on a NDSLite, so hopefully updates aren't an issue here. My boyfriend on the original NDS is having the same problem with his PWV game.

I've tried to copy my Pokemon Black save from my old R4 card onto the new one. I dragged and dropped it into the Pokemon Black folder, I made sure the file extensions were the same (.nds.sav), but every time I start up the nds file it only gives me the option to start a new game. The save file shows up in the menu (using L+Sel, or changing the menu settings to show NDS + SAV), but even if I delete the new/empty one the game only generates a new one instead of reading the old save. I've even tried renaming it to exactly what the new saves are named (from "PBV.nds.sav" to "ps-pokebu.nds.sav"), but that didn't work either. I tried changing the save file type in settings just in case, but all that did was generate a new .sav file instead of .nds.sav.

What am I missing here? How do I get the nds game to read my transferred .nds.sav file? Thanks in advance for any help! I'd hate to have to start my Nuzlocke over from the beginning

 

[Rydian]

Are you sure the ability to view the true file extensions is set in Windows?

 

[oateo]

I just right-clicked and checked in properties - sure enough, those .nds.sav's are actually .sav's in disguise. But like I said, I tried changing the file type to .sav in the settings, I thought that automatically renamed/made the .sav's readable? I'll try manually changing it to an .nds.sav and see how that goes.

edit to add: Okay, I'm not really sure what the difference is here. I checked a save file that the cart generated for another game (plants v. zombies), and it has the same deal. It's named as a .nds.sav, but under properties is listed as a ".sav" file. How do I change to a .nds.sav if it only counts everything after the last period as the file type? And shouldn't the option in settings to read .sav files make all of this unnecessary anyway?

 

[Rydian]

Go to the windows folder options, go to "view", and UNcheck "hide file extensions for known types".

 

[oateo]

I did that, it shows them exactly as they were before. I'm on Windows 8 - I don't know if that has anything to do with it.

In the screenshot you can see the option is checked to show file extensions (I double checked the setting you mentioned in advanced settings as well), in the background you can see the files on the cart to compare.

 

[Rydian]

So the first section of the shot is what's on the MicroSD?

 

[oateo]

Yes.

 

[Rydian]

What are the sizes of the save files?

 

[oateo]

I should add (and was editing my previous post when you replied) that the third file is a .sav from when I tried changing the settings. The file it normally generates looks the same, but is called "ps-pokebu.nds.sav".

The generated (empty) .sav is 512 bytes, the .nds.sav also 512 bytes. The file I'm trying to transfer is 512kb.

Is that big of a size difference normal for the empty vs. back up save files? I tried using the old SD card (that I had in the original R4) and it was a no-go, which I assume has to do with formatting, so I'm wondering if there are any weird differences in the save files other than the extension.

 

[oateo]

Any ideas?

Since the files seem to be different sizes (512 bytes vs 512 kb), I know there are compatibility issues with different save types.. But how would I go about fixing that? I've seen the online save converter, but there is no option for a "512 byte" file size, which appears to be the size that my R4i is trying to save the new games as. I really don't know anything about this stuff, but 512 bytes seems ridiculously small for a game save.. So is that an error, or...?

(edit: I used the converter to shrink my old save to 512 bytes. I tried both .sav and .nds.sav, neither worked.)
(edit again to avoid double/triple posting: I started a new game file and actually saved instead of just quitting as soon as I saw that my old save wasn't there. This new game was 512kb. I tried overwriting it with my old save, same name and extension and everything, still no dice.)

I've read several other threads about similar issues, but none of their solutions have worked for me or make sense to my situation. For example, one person fixed it by changing the extension from upper case to lower case, but my extensions already match perfectly.

Any other suggestions are greatly appreciated...