Hacking Save File corruptes:(

[Naruto_Player154]

Hey guys,

I'm hoping someone here can help me with a Rune Factory 3 save file.

A few days ago I was playing on my Nintendo DS with an R4 card. I had put a lot of time into the game and was pretty far in. While I was saving, my DS suddenly turned off. After that, the game said my save file was corrupted.

The strange thing is that the save file isn't empty. I checked it and there are still things like my animal names, item names and other game data inside. One of my animals is a wolf named Bruno, and his name is still visible in the save data.

The original save file is 64 KB. I also tried a save repair website, which created a 512 KB version, but that one isn't recognized by the game at all.

Right now both my R4 card and melonDS show no save file to load. It just acts like there isn't a save there anymore.

I still have the original save file and I'm really hoping there's a way to recover it or at least extract the progress from it. I put a lot of hours into this save and would hate to lose it.

If anyone knows anything about Rune Factory 3 save recovery or is willing to take a look at the file, I'd be really grateful.

Thanks!

 

[The Real Jdbye]

Hey guys,

I'm hoping someone here can help me with a Rune Factory 3 save file.

A few days ago I was playing on my Nintendo DS with an R4 card. I had put a lot of time into the game and was pretty far in. While I was saving, my DS suddenly turned off. After that, the game said my save file was corrupted.

The strange thing is that the save file isn't empty. I checked it and there are still things like my animal names, item names and other game data inside. One of my animals is a wolf named Bruno, and his name is still visible in the save data.

The original save file is 64 KB. I also tried a save repair website, which created a 512 KB version, but that one isn't recognized by the game at all.

Right now both my R4 card and melonDS show no save file to load. It just acts like there isn't a save there anymore.

I still have the original save file and I'm really hoping there's a way to recover it or at least extract the progress from it. I put a lot of hours into this save and would hate to lose it.

If anyone knows anything about Rune Factory 3 save recovery or is willing to take a look at the file, I'd be really grateful.

Thanks!

I feel your pain, I'm always paranoid about saving while the battery is low in case this happens to me.

Usually save files are verified with a checksum, sometimes multiple checksums, if any of the checksums don't match then the save fails to load.

The first step is to correct the checksums, this isn't entirely straightforward, you have to make multiple saves with small changes between them, and compare what changed in a hex editor to eventually find out where the checksum(s) are stored, then you also have to figure out how the checksum is calculated so you can generate a valid one, in short it probably takes a bit of experience with reverse engineering file formats to do it successfully.

Then the game will probably see the save file, but there's no guarantee the game won't crash upon loading due to corrupted data, or the save will be completely broken in some other way preventing progress. Depending on what the state of the save was when the DS turned off, it might seemingly work perfectly or be a little (or a lot) broken.

Fixing the checksums is one thing, but if there is corrupted data there is no way to know exactly what the data would have been, so if there is more that needs to be fixed than just the checksum, it's probably impossible to get the save back exactly the way it was.

If there was a save editor then fixing the checksums would be pretty simple but I couldn't find one. You're probably going to need some help with that but it's a little beyond me, I only know the general steps.

 

[Naruto_Player154]

I feel your pain, I'm always paranoid about saving while the battery is low in case this happens to me.

Usually save files are verified with a checksum, sometimes multiple checksums, if any of the checksums don't match then the save fails to load.

The first step is to correct the checksums, this isn't entirely straightforward, you have to make multiple saves with small changes between them, and compare what changed in a hex editor to eventually find out where the checksum(s) are stored, then you also have to figure out how the checksum is calculated so you can generate a valid one, in short it probably takes a bit of experience with reverse engineering file formats to do it successfully.

Then the game will probably see the save file, but there's no guarantee the game won't crash upon loading due to corrupted data, or the save will be completely broken in some other way preventing progress. Depending on what the state of the save was when the DS turned off, it might seemingly work perfectly or be a little (or a lot) broken.

Fixing the checksums is one thing, but if there is corrupted data there is no way to know exactly what the data would have been, so if there is more that needs to be fixed than just the checksum, it's probably impossible to get the save back exactly the way it was.

If there was a save editor then fixing the checksums would be pretty simple but I couldn't find one. You're probably going to need some help with that but it's a little beyond me, I only know the general steps.

Thanks for the explanation.

That actually gives me a bit of hope because the save file definitely isn't empty. Animal names, item names and other game data are still present in the file.

Unfortunately I don't really have any experience with reverse engineering save formats or checksums myself.

Would anyone here be willing to take a look at the save file directly? Even if it's just to determine whether the problem is likely only the checksum or if there is actual save data corruption as well.

I still have the original 64 KB save file that was created before I tried any repair tools.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

 

[k66]

You haven't uploaded the save file, so others can't help you.

 

[Naruto_Player154]

You haven't uploaded the save file, so others can't help you.

Im sorry heres the file

 

[k66]

It may be impossible to fix...
The information at the beginning of the save file, such as 'player name, level, time, location' is all blank.

 

[Naruto_Player154]

It may be impossible to fix...
The information at the beginning of the save file, such as 'player name, level, time, location' is all blank.

Does this help if i say the name and that to you? Player name: ADRIA, level: 74 time 7:43 pm and location is in this base there

Post automatically merged: Sunday at 4:31 PM

It may be impossible to fix...
The information at the beginning of the save file, such as 'player name, level, time, location' is all blank.

If you need any information about my save file (level, story progress, location, items, money, or anything else), just let me know

Post automatically merged: Sunday at 6:31 PM

It may be impossible to fix...
The information at the beginning of the save file, such as 'player name, level, time, location' is all blank.

I have also an new working save file for comparison here.