Hacking GBA expansion pack, different savefiles

[BmlCom]

I have a GBA game "Golden Sun". I've played it 16 hours. Then I removed the GBA expansion pack from the DS and didn't start the DS again, so the system could not write the data back to the SD card.
I put in the Rumble pack and played another NDS game. For the next 8 hours I didn't put the GBA expansion back in the DS.
The next day I put in the GBA expansion back in the system and started the DS Browser.
After using the browser I restarted and started another session of Golden Sun. It didn't find a save file on the system (when I looked in the explorer I saw a .0 and a .is0 file).
I removed all the files, placed a new Golden Sun GBA file on the system. When starting Golden Sun I have seen a savefile which was from playing 3 hours. So this is probably an old file where I don't know where it came from (there were no .0 or .is0 files of Golden Sun on the SD card).
I play for 5 minutes and save. I restart the DS. I receive the message "processing data", so it is creating the 0. and .is0 files. When I start Golden Sun I don't see any savefiles anymore.
When I delete the .0 and .is0 files again and start the game I'll supprisingly see the 3 hours save file.
Then I restart the DS, it creates the files, after starting the game it's back at 0 hours again.
How does the save meganism work? Can anyone tell me what is happening?
I'm afraid I will have this also with other GBA games.

 

[lilaznkilla]

If your gba save doesn't really save try switching the method to fast load instead of patch.
How saving works should happen something like this:
When playing all data is kept in the GBA expansion pack, which is then written into the .0 file in the micro SD the next time you start the M3 REAL up. I suggest that when your finished playing a GBA rom, restart the DS and let it write the save onto the micro sd.

 

[BmlCom]

Hi,

Thanks for your reply. But I already saved and restarted the system in this 16 hours of playtime.
I have done the following, maybe it describes the problem more in detail.

1. I check the ROM (0171 - Golden Sun (UE).gba) with VisualBoyAdvance on my PC. I don't see any saves in the game.
2. I copy the ROM to the SD card. At the startup of the game (patch) I see gamesaves (2 1/2 hours of playing time).
3. To be sure I'll save again after just 5 minutes of playing time and restart the DS.
4. Start the ROM with patch and all of a sudden the game start from the beginning with no savefiles. When I first check the filesystem I see the .0 and .is0 files already created.
5. When I delete the savefiles and place a new ROM (with a different filename) the game DOES start from the beginning (no savegames).

I think the RAM module has some information about the ROM file I've used and finds info about saves. The playtime of 5 minutes are also to see (step 3 where I save 5 minutes later in the game). So the save has to be kept somewhere.
It can't be the "modified" ROM file as the file was clean with step 1.

So I still don't get what is happening. I also have the same with Mario Cart Super Circuit. I've tried this game with patch and direct load.