Homebrew Loading extracted .SAV files with ROMs?

[Sarlic]

Hi everyone:

I've been searching for 2 days now for an answer as to why my ROM won't load my .SAV file, I can't seem to find any answers. I apologize if this topic has been covered.

I purchased Final Fantasy IV DS, and I recently loaded the ROM onto my CycloDS so that I could carry all of my games together. I backed up my .SAV file via WiFi using NDS_Backup_Tool_Wifi (it gives me an error after the back up, but I've read in many places that that is normal?)

Andway, I rename the .SAV to match the name of the .nds file, but nothing!

Do I have to patch the ROM in any way? Do I have to get an extra program to load the .SAV file?

Any help any of you can provide would be most appreciated, and I apologize if this topic has been covered ad-nauseum.

Thanks very much,

SM

 

[sgand]

I thought I read somewhere that it has to be lower cased .sav? Give that a shot, I guess.

 

[Sarlic]

It's definitely a lower-case ".sav" file that matches the name of the .nds file exactly. (sorry for the upper-cases, was just doing that to easily distinguish the file types)

 

[Evilmaster1985]

Ive posted this quite some times now.
http://www.shunyweb.info/convert.php
Convert from raw to cyclo DS.
After doing so and the file does not run on your NDS.
You will need to pad it to exactly 512 kb!

I know that when using this converter you should not have to pad your file.
However I noticed myself by dumping my zelda savegame converting it and padding it was the only way to make it work.

You could either pad the file using a hex editor by storing trash on the end untill it fits exactly 512kb.
Or you could get Destructobot his program from the download section.
Which has a padding script all you need to do is drop the save file in the correct batch file (512kb).

Greetz, Vistabuser.

 

[Sarlic]

Thanks very much! I will definitely try.

I noticed that my SAVs are coming out at around 63 K.

Hopefully I can get this to work!

 

[Sarlic]

Not only will the Rom STILL not find the .SAV file using the website above, now my .sav's have disappeared from my CART! I still have my backups available, but when I try to restore, NDS Backup Tool gives me the error "The specified SAV file is a file that is smaller than the SAVE area of ROM"

I've lost my whole game if I can't restore this stuff!!

Can anyone help?

 

[Sarlic]

I just loaded a .sav file I downloaded from the download section without a hitch! So there must be something wrong with my .sav file!

Is there any kind of repair tool that would read it and correct errors? Does anyone on here know how to do this?

Thanks so much, sorry I'm such a n00b!

 

[anandjones]

.sav does not need to be lowercase, only the filename must match. R4 etc. create them all as uppercase sav.

 

[Evilmaster1985]

Alright now u are making it yourself harder than it is.
Because you did not read at all.

"The specified SAV file is a file that is smaller than the SAVE area of ROM"

Doh thats why I told you to PAD it.
I even explained how :S

Anyway I give up on this one.
If you want proper help you must read properly.

Greetz, Vistabuser.

 

[Sarlic]

Vistabuster:

Actually, I used your converter website to pad a copy to 512 K for use with the ROM, as well as to take my original RAW export and pad that up to 64 K, which is what the cartridge is looking for. Sorry -- was not clear on that.

Neither of them worked.

Each time, either the ROM, or the cartridge, gives me the message on start up "initializing save-slot" or whatever the language is, and it over-writes whatever .sav file is there.

So I don't think the issue is size anymore, but the problem of a corrupt SAV file.

Which is why I was asking if there was a utility (or if someone knew how) to repair these files.

 

[Densetsu]

Can you open the .sav in a DS emulator for the PC?

*EDIT*
Try to open it in an emulator like No$Gba (more emulators here). If you can access the save, create a save file through the emulator, then use shunyweb's converter to convert the emulator .sav file for your CycloDS.

 

[Sarlic]

I downloaded and installed, the .sav file is still in the same folder as the .nds file, and I get the error "The save data cannot be accessed. Please turn power off and re-insert card."

 

[johnnyhaggis]

Hey everyone - I have more or less the exact same issue as Sarlic - I bought a copy of Final Fantasy IV, and I've played it right up to the final boss battle and it's saved there. I got a TTDS and wanted to transfer the game and my save file. I used a downloaded version of the game and copied my save file via the NDS Backup Tool Wifi. However each time I try to start the game, it erases my save file and starts a new game.

I thought that maybe the issue was the downloaded game, so I decided to transfer the game from the original card itself, and that's when I noticed something weird - the game on the original card itself is only 8M! The save file is 256K. Meanwhile the downloaded version is 128M and the save file is 512k!

If I try to use the 8M file that gets copied, it doesn't work at all. If I try to use the 256k file with the 128M program, it just erases the 256k file.

I tried the methods you guys recommended to pad the file, or convert it to 512, but it still just erases the file.

Why on earth would the NDS Backup Tool be reading the original program file as 8M?

I've transfered several other sav files this way, from about 20 games I have, and they all work fine on the TTDS, only Final Fantasy IV has this issue.

 

[TankedThomas]

I know this topic is fast growing old but I know an easy answer to this.

First of all, when the file achieves 100% backup and finishes, it quite often does say it has failed (when it hasn't).

But the answer is quite simple. First of all, put the sav and rom on the card together. Now, load it up and go into the games. Press Select until all files show (normally you press Select twice). Now, go to your .sav and run it. It will ask if you want to create a backup of it. Press A and it will make yourrom.bak. Now select that .bak and launch it. It will ask you to restore the backup file. Press A to do so and it will import that save file into the game. It now works and you should never have to do that again for that ROM.

Now, if you want to put the save back into the original game, you need to place the sav in the right file directory (check your FTP for that directory) so the WiFi backup tool lists the sav. Then you just use the restore function. However, you'll probably need to pad it first, so use the site mentioned above to do so.

Hope this helps.

By the way, I did this on an R4DS but it should work for all or at least most flash cards.