Hacking EZ-V 3-in-1 GBA saving system

[Corridor]

I'm having a lot of trouble understanding how this thing saves my GBA games. I just got the Slot-2 device the other day, and I've been playing Superstar Saga and the Castlevanias. But the saving is... weird. I've tried to research it but I'm not technical, and every FAQ or guide I've found uses a lot of terminology that just goes over my head.

Here's what's going on as I see it:
When I run GBA Exploader (v0.58), it says "Write SRAM to save file" and gives me a list of 5 slots. I think it's making a virtual image of the cart/rom or something? None of them ever have anything in them except the first one, occasionally. If it's there it's just listed as a date and time so I don't know what it actually is, I assume it's the game I last played. I generally just pick the first empty slot, unless I'm playing that same game from last time.

When I enter the program and choose a game to play, it says "Load SRAM from SAV file". Sometimes there is a file there, sometimes there is not. Often there will be nothing there even if I'm certain I saved that particular game. Sometimes there'll be a save file, but it will be from much earlier in the game than I actually last saved it. Sometimes there will be a file, but when I go check the actual folder on the SDcard in Windows there's nothing related to that game.

The last one just happened to me with Harmony of Dissonance. I played for ages, saved, turned it off, then loaded the SDcard in windows and there wasn't a HoD file to be seen. I got kinda pissed, thinking it hadn't saved, but when I tried loading the game again in Exploader it was right there, and progress was saved at the same place I left it.

I'm sure it's all working just fine, and the only reason it's screwing around is because I don't understand how it works and I keep doing retarded things. If someone could tell me how to actually save games without overwriting or losing them, I'd be very happy.

I'm using an R4 (yeah I know, I got it when it was cool) on a DS Lite with the EZ-V GBA expansion. Never had a problem with the DS homebrew stuff.

 

[gumgod]

The wording on that thing is kind of weird and it threw me at first too. The 3 in 1 functions like a GBA cart when a game is loaded onto it. The progress you make is saved directly onto the 3 in 1 until you back it up manually or change it out for another game so you won't see that on your SD card unless you do one of those two things. When you go to load a game "Write SRAM to file" takes the save that is on the 3 in 1 and writes it to a save on your SD card. You can have multiple saves for the same game (1-5) rather than overwriting the same one over and over. Load SRAM does the opposite, it takes a save file from your sd card and loads it onto the 3 in 1. The save must be in the right place on the card and it must be the same name as the game. (With a different file extension of course). Take a look at the file names of some of the ones on your card that work.