Gaming Homebrew game Can't restore save from backup

[goder2910]

Maybe the problem is keystone.
What exactly error that you have met ?
Some thing like "corrupted data" when loading the save game ???

 

[godreborn]

I don't think it's a keystone problem, because it's not a legit save. it's a fpkg save.

 

[Horvi]

Maybe the problem is keystone.
What exactly error that you have met ?
Some thing like "corrupted data" when loading the save game ???

The restoring process always fails and gives the second error.

 

[godreborn]

sounds like something happened when you backed up the save. I don't know how to correct this, if it's even possible. the importing of saves should still work, so something is obviously wrong with the save.

 

[Horvi]

I dunno really. All my other saves working tho. Maybe I could test this out. I'm gonna start a new game, progress a little bit, save manually a few times. Then I'm gonna back them up to usb, delete them from the system then restore them from USB. If those saves gonna work, then I think we can be sure I'm fucked and the old backup got corrupted somehow.

 

[Horvi]

Okay so I played the game for a while from the beginning, made some progress and saved a couple times manually. Backed up the save, deleted from the system, restored and it's working.
I then checked the files on the usb, the 2 files there are named sce_sdmemory (no attribute) and sce_sdmemory.bin. The files size matches my old backups' size. Then, I used save mounter again to see what's there. sce_sys folder anda file called memory.dat. I don't understand this. Why is there a memory.dat file and the sce_sdmemory files aren't? What is that memory.dat file?

 

[goder2910]

Okay so I played the game for a while from the beginning, made some progress and saved a couple times manually. Backed up the save, deleted from the system, restored and it's working.
I then checked the files on the usb, the 2 files there are named sce_sdmemory (no attribute) and sce_sdmemory.bin. The files size matches my old backups' size. Then, I used save mounter again to see what's there. sce_sys folder anda file called memory.dat. I don't understand this. Why is there a memory.dat file and the sce_sdmemory files aren't? What is that memory.dat file?

So save game file is not the problem.
It 's difficult to answer What is the memory.dat file, but i always copy all file except sce_sys folder when restore save game by using Save Mounter, maybe the problem is memory.dat is removed from restore process because your GOW game does not have any save game file on the system.

 

[Horvi]

So save game file is not the problem.
It 's difficult to answer What is the memory.dat file, but i always copy all file except sce_sys folder when restore save game by using Save Mounter, maybe the problem is memory.dat is removed from restore process because your GOW game does not have any save game file on the system.

So next time I should back up my saves using 3 methods (saved data manager, backup payload and save mounter)?

 

[goder2910]

So next time I should back up my saves using 3 methods (saved data manager, backup payload and save mounter)?

Yes, and also that what i'm doing right now.
Just remember, before you restore save game by save mounter, do not forget to make a temp save game file (inside of game).

 

[Horvi]

Yes, and also that what i'm doing right now.
Just remember, before you restore save game by save mounter, do not forget to make a temp save game file (inside of game).

A temp save game file? What is the purpose of that and how you do it?

 

[Horvi]

Hmm one more thing to add here if that matters! So when I first started to play GoW, my account wasn't offline activated. I did it later and thankfully my saves stayed intact. This means that those saves originally wasn't "tied" to my account. But after swapping the HDD the first thing I did is to offline activate the profiles, only then I restored my saves. Could this be the problem? Maybe my original save is filled with zeros instead of my account id?

 

[godreborn]

if that's the case, you might be able to fix it using the sce_sys folder, but I'm not sure. the param.sfo contains the account id, which is in little endian, so the account id is byte reversed.

 

[goder2910]

A temp save game file? What is the purpose of that and how you do it?

Some games require at least one slot save game in save game directory (Like Persona 5 royal) to "receive" the new save game.
So creating the temp save game is needed.
I create temp save game by using New Game or play for a while and save -in game.

 

[godreborn]

I found the account id in the param.sfo. it's at 0x15c. you must use a hex editor as the param.sfo app will show gibberish:

it is in fact byte reversed, so the last byte are the first two digits of the account id. I changed mine for security reasons, but this is what you want to change if you have no account id.

 

[Horvi]

if that's the case, you might be able to fix it using the sce_sys folder, but I'm not sure. the param.sfo contains the account id, which is in little endian, so the account id is byte reversed.

Checked, the account id matches the offline activated account id. Should I write it to zeros? What about the sce_bu_sce_sdmemory.sfo file in savedate_meta folder and the savedata.db file in system_data/savedata folder?

 

[godreborn]

I don't know what the sce_bu_sce_sdmemory.sfo is for. the savedata.db just recounts the information for the save. if you replace saves via save mounter, after creating a save yourself, then the old information will still be in the record yet the save will work. you just have to save again immediately to update the database.

 

[Horvi]

You missed my first question. I downloaded param.sfo checked the account id, it shows the offline activated account's id instead zeros. Should I write zeros there? Then what? Reboot and it should work?

 

[godreborn]

I'm not sure. I have a feeling it won't work, but it might be worth a try if you've exhausted every other idea.

 

[Horvi]

First I tried to modify all 3 files, param.sfo, sce_bu_sce_sdmemory.sfo and savedata.db. Didn't work. I think the main problem is that the save mounter gives me access to different files than the saved data manager that backs up the data to usb. The former gives you access to sce_sys folder and a memory.dat file, the latter copies sce_sdmemory (without fileformat) & sce_sdmemory.bin and I don't know how to "mix" them.
Anyway, I went nuts so as a last resort I checked if I could restore deleted data from my external hard drive where I backed up and accidentally deleted the first system backup I made (which contained GoW but not much else). I was damn lucky. I managed to restore ~150Gb of data. Plugged into the PS4 and successfully restored the system once again. Everything worked except my trophies were missing but I managed restore them too from the backup I made with the payload.
But hey, thanks for the help @godreborn !

 

[godreborn]

So the save now works?