Hacking Why your microSD keeping corrupt while use with EZ-FLASH OMEGA

[EZ-Flash2]

Users keep complaining their sd card corrupted since the product launch. after a long time investigate in Chinese user community. it seems we found the reason.

Every user of EZ-FLASH OMEGA remembers the infamous rhyme: Counting 1 to 5.
But there are two other things to remember. in the user manual - Important Note, it said the save states and emulator menu also need counting.
We've found the card corrupted users like to choose the exit option when they want to exit the emulator. it is the main reason which cause the card corruption.

There are two triggers which the emulator use to activate the save function, 1. Press L+R to summon up the main menu, 2. exit the emulator to card os. They are working well when used on common flash card which use SRAM + battery. but not well on EZ-FLAH OMEGA.

The save mechanism of EZ-FLASH OMEGA works like this: A thread is watching the SRAM on the card. if the SRAM is changed by the save function of game or homebrew. write the SRAM data to the microsd card. the write process need a little time to open, write and close the file. that is why we need a counting 1 to 5.

The user choose the exit option in emulator, the emulator activate the save function and reset to kernel. the file open, write and close procedure is interrupted by the reset. a bad file cluster is generated on card. again and again, the bad file clusters corrupt the card.

Conclusion: Please press L+R and wait 1-3 seconds then power off when you want to exit the emulator.

 

[EZ-Flash2]

The ways to protect you save files:
1. backup the save files to computer frequently
2. if you see any error code, it means the card already has the bad file clusters. backup the save folder, scan and fix the microsd card before more damages are made.

 

[EZ-Flash2]

No one seems to read this post.

 

[Hark0n]

I gave up on playing GB and GBC games on the EZ-Flash Omega... and now i have no trouble... GBA works fine and that is what i am using it for. I am rally sorry to say, i really do not mean any offence by saying this, but the implentation of the Goomba Emulator on this flashcard is horrible... the only way to prevent savegame corrotuption is by simply not using it...

 

[Deleted-236924]

No one seems to read this post.

It has 380+ views.

 

[Hark0n]

Also, one tiny suggestion... since the Omega has a battery... why not use that to keep the card powered long enough for it to finish writing the safe game on the sd card after a shutdown? Would make the product foolproof... also make the battery easy to replace!

 

[Deleted User]

Also, one tiny suggestion... since the Omega has a battery... why not use that to keep the card powered long enough for it to finish writing the safe game on the sd card after a shutdown? Would make the product foolproof... also make the battery easy to replace!

At least, the save should be written in a temporal file and moved to the original save path only when the file write is finished. Also, if a save hasn't been written successfully, the menu should warn the user of possible sd corruption.

 

[VinsCool]

Good to know!
I am always a little worried about file corruption.

 

[ashaman25]

I am only using the EZFlash for GBA and will make sure i count to 5 before powering down my Micro. It is a great flash cart and i have had no problems so far. I will try and remember to backup my .SAV files though.

 

[lamvuong]

It is hard to know when a process is still open / used. I am using a ds and suffered from the corruption from time to time.

 

[Enox]

I rarely have issues with GBA. It's GBC that seems to have issues the most. Save states work, but in game saves randomly stop working for me on GBC. I save in game, L+R, wait the 5 seconds, exit the game to the menu, load up the game, no save file. It's definitely a problem, regardless of what is stated in this post.

 

[cearp]

I haven't had problems, but yeah, I don't emulate anything on it. GBA only
But thanks for the information.

 

[AyanamiRei0]

So far I've had no issues with my EZ-Flash Omega but then again I haven't used the GB/GBC emu that's built in.

 

[veikkos]

At least, the save should be written in a temporal file and moved to the original save path only when the file write is finished. Also, if a save hasn't been written successfully, the menu should warn the user of possible sd corruption.

Best solution would be to have a set of save files (like from 0 to 9) and write them over in rolling manner. Like log rotation. This way you'd never be writing over your most recent saves and could hopefully restore one of the previous saves if last save broke.

 

[veikkos]

Best solution would be to have a set of save files (like from 0 to 9) and write them over in rolling manner. Like log rotation. This way you'd never be writing over your most recent saves and could hopefully restore one of the previous saves if last save broke.

This backup idea has been now implemented in unofficial kernel.

 

[Randy Steele]

I've had this happen way too many times and it's really pissing me off. It only happens with gba games. I absolutely never shut my system off during or even soon after saving, I've tried a newer sd card but it still happens. This is really frustrating. I'm starting to think it's just a crap product because this really should not be happening so frequently. Everything in my system folder is corrupted and it inevitably happens every time

 

[DrunkenMonk]

I've had this happen way too many times and it's really pissing me off. It only happens with gba games. I absolutely never shut my system off during or even soon after saving, I've tried a newer sd card but it still happens. This is really frustrating. I'm starting to think it's just a crap product because this really should not be happening so frequently. Everything in my system folder is corrupted and it inevitably happens every time

Have you tried enabling the LED blink for SD activity in the settings? That way you can always power off whilst it's not flashing and know you're ok. It's good practice to backup your saves every so often though

 

[Randy Steele]

Have you tried enabling the LED blink for SD activity in the settings? That way you can always power off whilst it's not flashing and know you're ok. It's good practice to backup your saves every so often though

Except that isn't the issue. I already knew about the save issue so I've always known better than to shut off the system during or anytime soon after saving a game. Every time it's happened everything is perfectly fine one moment, I go to load up a gba rom and suddenly I'm hit with a "Read Save Error" and when I restart the console my save folder is gone.

 

[realtimesave]

hmm weird problem I have, both of my ezflash omega won't recognize my 64GB FAT32 any more, but they work perfectly fine with my 32GB FAT32. no idea why that would be. I'm going to try cleaning the contacts I guess?

Looks like I'll have to try a different 64GB because this thing is being idiotic. I'm using KRIKZZ everdrive X5 now, it reads the 64GB perfectly fine. I'm not sure why I gave it a bad review because it does indeed support RTC. I'll just use it instead.