Can the game disc itself corrupt a memory card?

[MrMatthews]

This weekend I had to restart Metal Gear Solid: Twin Snakes nearly half a dozen times because each time I tried to continue with a previous save file, I kept getting the "corrupt memory card" error message.

I've formatted the memory card several times already, but the end result is always the same - the only difference is how much time I've invested and subsequently lost.

The weird part is that I can save successfully once. I can create one retrievable save file, but as soon as I create a new file or save over the first, it's toast.

So this got me wondering: can something be wrong with the game disc itself? Or is it absolutely the {first party} memory card?

[Knuckle Duster]

I never heard of, or experienced any memory corruption bugs in the software. It's been a long time since I played it, and never got on Disc 2, so that could be why.

Probably dying flash memory in the card. They do wear out.

[Nunzio]

Used to happen to me with Final Fantasy VII. Right after the sector drop on disc 1. Never made it to disc 2 because of it.

[QuickSciFi]

I don't know about corrupting a mem card, but I have a feeling Crazy Taxi for the Sega Dreamcast becomes corrupted with the slightest of surface scratches. Just a slightly dusted surface will make it read: "Disk Unreadable." I've had the same problem happen to me twice with brand new disks. I think it may have been the way the data was encripted or even where along the loop on the disk itself it may have burned the most sensitive data.

[Yfrid]

i suspect something similar with my copy of Sonic Adventure 2 for Dreamcast.
It doesn't corrupt the memory card but even if i've finished it thousand times and i have few emblems left to do, many songs in the sound test are still locked, for example: in "Action stages" i should have all bosses themes unlocked, but i have only boss1, boss3, boss5. if i remember right some themes of Rouge stages are missing too. Same for "Events" themes. half than supposed to be... weird.

[kool kitty89]

I lost a lot of game saves when our 8x GC memory card started dying a few months ago... Some games allowed me to load but not save (so I could at least re-save to another card), others only gave corruption errors, like Sonic Adventure 1/2 (really annoying as it still displayed all the stats and achievements), and several others... Haven't checked wind waker or master quest, RS III would load, but not save...

What really worrys me is the Wii, it's flash is embedded and contains the OS. It's constantly being updated, used, and paging from the SD card. When those start going bad I bet we'll have a LOT of pissed Nintendo fans... (among others) Same with early xbox 360 adopters with the 256 MB of flash --assuming they haven't RROD'd.

HDDs can go bad too, but usually in a different manner. Ie if the bearing/motor start going bad there's someties some fixes you can do, or, if its starting to cease up, you may still be able to dump the data and replace it depending on the proprietarity of the format. (in general I think HDDs -at least those kept away from copious dust- will be outliving flash memory on such consoles)
I think EEPROM is a fair bit better, so N64 games (and a few Genesis as well as Jaguar) and PSX cards with that should last longer. Then there's batter backed SRAM which seems to last a LONG time in many cases, and at least one can replace the battery after it dies. (or painstakingly hot-swap it)

Then there's cases like Sonic 3's FeRAM which seems to randomly die, and not reparable like SRAM. (full replacement only)

[MrMatthews]

So it's just the memory card, then. It's a little disconcerting that formatting the card didn't fix the problem. What's more troublesome is that I clearly need a new memory card and now can't get one very easily. You'd think that retailers would keep a SMALL amount of GameCube stuff in stock.

[17daysolderthannes]

does the memory card have problems on any other games? is the game disc scratched to any appreciable extent?

You could try cleaning the contact pins on the memory card as it's no different from old cartridge games and will oxidize with years of heavy use.

If it's the high capacity GC card, that card is known for crapping out, most likely due to a conflict in hardware and software causing write problems (it seems most high capacity cards have issues unless they're really just multiple cards in one case with some sort of bank selector like a PSX card I saw once).

If the game disc is scratched badly, it could be causing the portion of the disc responsible for writing saves to not work properly. I find it unlikely as that file would presumably be pretty small compared to everything else, but it's not impossible.

Contrary to what others are saying, I don't think the issue is with the lifespan of flash. Everyone thinks of flash memory as a super short-lived storage medium, but people have reported using flash drives for years with constant writing and no issues. One thing is for sure, there is no way in hell a physical drive would outlast a flash drive. Until recently, physical drives would crap out before the effective lifespan of the computer was up. I remember back in the late 90's/early 2000's when it seemed like every few weeks someone I knew would have their hard drive wear out and stop working. On the other hand, I've never once heard of a flash drive or solid-state hard drive wearing out. Also, flash only wears when data is written, not read, so things like the Wii should be fine unless you're constantly filling the data, deleting, and writing again.

[KnightWarrior]

do you have another MC for the Cube?? If so

Back up, back up, BACK UP

[kool kitty89]

In my case, it's the official high capacity memory card (the white one), I think that's 8 MB. Not the 3rd party 16 MB or 32 MB cards... Our mad catz 4x card is still fine too. (it was our original card, but unfortunately we dumped everything to the 8 MB card years ago and wiped the 4x one --the latter is now in use again as it never ended up getting used for much else)

I think it might only be certain areas of the memory card which have gone bad too, possibly games that involved more saving... (and/or had more sensitive save mechanisms or error correction)

There were also several cases of hot swapping the card --plugging it in or pulling out while turned on (not while saving/loading). In fact, that was the only way we were able to get SSBM to load on that card more recently. (again, transferred a lot to the old 4x card)


But backing up corrupted memory is no good. (if you can't load the file, you can't even do that ---it's good in the cases of games giving errors but still loading, like RSIII, which just can't save anymore)

[MrMatthews]

Sigh... Yes, mines the high-capacity one.

I'm glad I saved that one and sold the rest on eBay.

[17daysolderthannes]

Sigh... Yes, mines the high-capacity one.

I'm glad I saved that one and sold the rest on eBay.

Yep, that's the shitter. I don't know what is wrong with those cards, but someone really dropped the ball on that one as even 3rd party hi-capacity cards don't have the failure rate of that card. It's like the RROD of the Gamecube.

[kool kitty89]

Damn, that thing soiled my perception of flash memory... and screwed up several good saves... I wonder if the whole card is going to go or just select blocks... I sure wish I'd known about that 1-2 years ago.

[17daysolderthannes]

Damn, that thing soiled my perception of flash memory... and screwed up several good saves... I wonder if the whole card is going to go or just select blocks... I sure wish I'd known about that 1-2 years ago.

like I said, I don't think it's flash in general's fault, but rather some serious fuck up with the design of the card.

[kool kitty89]

How come it only seems to go bad over time? (worked perfectly fine for 5+ years for over a dozen games)