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Corrupt Save Files on PC


benihana

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Speedsterworld

holy sh*t i'm a genius i fixed i, it's an issue witi windows username, go to your C drive, or windows drive, then Documents and settings, and if your username has a PERIOD like .WINDOW or .COMPUTERNAME

...

then it will be corrupt, make a new user, one that's never been on the computer before, so it wont have a PERIOD, then throw it admin privs if u want , then switch to that user, then run the game save should work

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Speedsterworld

and again, can I please get confirmation if that last one worked for anyone other than myself tounge.gif, just so I know and then if it does, we can make that a sticky

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Homer Morisson

I love you man... biggrin.gif

It works... I can finally save.... feel free to consider yourself god biggrin.gif

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Speedsterworld

AWESOME Homer biggrin.gif

 

I actually kinda feel like god right now wink.gif, I was soooo happy when i figured it out, i've already phoned up their tech support and inputted the fix for them, they submitted it to their supervisor and gave me a case# and are processing and testing it on their end as well

 

To finalize that,

 

I motion for a sticky to help every other poor soul that's fuming at the ears

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STICKY THIS!

 

Yeah, that worked!!!

 

Is there any way to change the name of the folder of an existing user account though?? Just curious...

 

Thanks man!

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Is there any way to change the name of the folder of an existing user account though?? Just curious...

 

THAT would be really nice. Is there such a way?

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Speedsterworld

i believe there used to be a program or method that enabled you to change the name of the folder, and i think i remember it tounge.gif but vaguely, therefore i'm not going to undertake testing my theory of doing that tounge.gif

 

Microsoft's Support site might have the answer, can't remember

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In WindowsXP Professional: Go to Control Panel->User Accounts. Click the Advanced tab. Under the Advanced user management section, click "Advanced".

 

In "Users" find the user, right-click and "rename".

 

Tada!

Edited by vogelap
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Pheew

 

Happily my username in documents and settings doesn't have period in its name, so i hope that i will be able to seva and load game properly biggrin.gif

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Speedsterworld

hehe damn complicated mind of mine, good point vogelap

 

and yes if you dont' have the PERIOD, u'll be fine tounge.gif

 

just to append on, i believe the only issue was one line of code, because you could save your game, when loading, it knew the game was there, just couldn't load it, that's the spot that i believe was reading file/folder names in an old style or an improper directory retrieval method, y'know like the old ms-dos 8bit directory lines.... so basically just one or 2 line's of code in around the loading part, should be a quick patch out soon for that then xmas.gif

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Absolutely worked once I created a new WinXP user with a simple one word name. Thanks for the work around!

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Well, crap. I tried renaming my user account, which worked, but the DIRECTORY is still called "C:\Documents and Settings\Andrew Vogel.BOWTIE-TY081XXX"... I cannot rename that directory to get rid of the period and don't really want to create a new user just to run the game.

 

Is there some way to change that DIRECTORY name?

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yeah, I have the same problem, renamed my account but still have a period in my folder name :\

 

NEED HELP DESPERATELY!

 

 

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SyphonPayne
yeah, I have the same problem, renamed my account but still have a period in my folder name :\

 

NEED HELP DESPERATELY!

If I'm not mistaken, I believe TweakUI for Windows XP will allow you to change your directory name.

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Well, this is an extreme solution, but you can always move your personal "My Documents" folder some place else. tounge.gif

 

Do not do this manually!!!

 

In Windows Explorer, traverse to your "C:\Documents and Settings\<whatever>" directory and then right click on the "My Documents" folder and select "Properties."

 

In that dialog box you'll see the option to "Move..." the folder.

 

 

Of course, do this at your own risk. cool.gif

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Well, this is an extreme solution, but you can always move your personal "My Documents" folder some place else. tounge.gif

 

Do not do this manually!!!

 

In Windows Explorer, traverse to your "C:\Documents and Settings\<whatever>" directory and then right click on the "My Documents" folder and select "Properties."

 

In that dialog box you'll see the option to "Move..." the folder.

 

 

Of course, do this at your own risk. cool.gif

This is an EXCELLENT idea...

 

Worked great for me... I've only got XP home, so the other solution to rename the whole directory isn't possible...

 

For some reason just moving the my documents folder never crossed my mind...

 

This thread still should be made a sticky!

 

Thanks again!

 

colgate.gif

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PresidentKiller

Well, when you rename your account by using "User Accounts" in the Control Panel, you're just changing the "display" name (this means: the name that you see on the Welcome screen and Start panel). You're not renaming the account per se.

 

Let's say you have your computer on a LAN and you want to get access to it from another computer, you'll need your user name and password. You'll notice that if you change your name using the "User Accounts" method, you'll still need to log in with your "old" name.

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I too apparently have a problem related to Save Game files, but it is slightly different to what everyone has reported above. It may be a result of a the same bug in the San Andreas "Save Game File Reading" code, but I think that something different is making it occur, because I don't think that my username or user folder has any periods in it.

 

My username is "Owner". The Windows XP Display Name is also "Owner". Here is the complete path to the directory that stores the San Andreas Save Game files.

 

C:\Documents and Settings\Owner\My Documents\GTA San Andreas User Files

 

I have the game installed on the same C:\ Drive. The drive only has the one partition.

 

I installed GTA San Andreas last night and played it for about 6 hours or so (I did a lot of time-wasting driving around and sightseeing). The game performed flawlessly at all the absolute MAX graphic settings. (I have an Nvidia GeForce 6800 Ultra). I saved every now and then, and always saved the game to a new, fresh, unused Save Game spot. In other words, I never over-wrote any save-game file.

 

I DID load from a few of my save-game files while playing the game. I never quit out of GTA San Andreas until late last night. So all the saving and loading that I had done previously was done during a single (first) "session" of gameplay.

 

Anyway, I just opened up San Andreas tonight for the second time ever, and according to the "Load Game" menu, my "Save Game" files are simply not there...as if I had just installed the game and never saved a game before ever. Only, I installed the game last night and saved a total of seven times.

 

Note, that the game is NOT telling me that any of the Save Game files are corrupt. The "Load Game" screen is simply acting as if there are no save game files present at all.

 

Yet, all the correct files seem to be in the "GTA San Andreas User Files" directory. Here are all the files I have in the "GTA San Andreas User Files" directory inside my "My Documents" folder.

 

 

Gallery (empty folder)

User Tracks (empty folder)

gta_sa.set (3KB)

GTASAsf1.b (198KB)

GTASAsf2.b (198KB)

GTASAsf3.b (198KB)

GTASAsf4.b (198KB)

GTASAsf5.b (198KB)

GTASAsf6.b (198KB)

GTASAsf7.b (198KB)

 

 

When I open the raw Save Game files in Notepad, I can easily see that their contents vary from one another. One has the string "Big Smoke" toward the beginning of the file, and another has the string "Tagging up Turf " toward the beginning of the file. These are obviously the names of two missions that I completed during my first session of play. So it would appear that the Save Game files are actually there. They are in the right place. They seem to have the correct file names. Yet the game iself simply does not recognize their existence.

 

So, now I can not seem to load any of my seven Save Game files. I guess I didn't really lose that much, but I did work out in the gym a lot, and would be bummed if I had to repeat all that.

 

Anyone have any ideas? I never had any problems (at all, ever) with GTA Vice City. I don't expect everything in an enormous software product like thsis game to be absolutely flawless, but this seems like a pretty major issue to me. I imagine that there will probably be a simple bug fix for it, once the source/cause of the bug is found.

 

Thanks to everyone posting their experiences and solutions above.

 

 

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PresidentKiller

Have you tried quitting San Andreas, then re-loading it? That "missing saved games" thing happened to me a couple of times with Vice City and got fixed just by doing that. Hope it helps.

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AnimaLMotheR

Here is a post off another forum that helped me rename my "C:\Documents and Settings\<username>" folder:

 

 

Yes, in the meantime somebody had the answer and it worked smile.gif

 

I share it here:

 

1. Create a temporary Administrator account.

 

2. Log in as that account. Rename the account you want to use (Sony User) to your name.

 

3. Rename the "Sony User" folder to your name.

 

4. Open "regedit". Navigate to:

 

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\ProfileList

 

Browse through the SIDs (it should be a SID with a long string, which denotes a user account) and look for the ProfileImagePath subkey in the one that reads:

 

%SystemDrive%\Documents and Settings\Sony User

 

change it to:

 

%SystemDrive%\Documents and Settings\<your name>

 

5. Log out and log back in as your name. Delete the temporary admin account. Make sure you go to the properties on the My Documents folder on your desktop and make sure that it reflects the right path.

 

A good idea is to export the "ProfileList" folder from your registry as a precaution. If you make a mistake you can just import the old settings into your registry.

 

Basically, when you log in with your temp admin account rename the folder that holds "My Documents/etc", go into registry and set the key so it points to your renamed folder.

 

Also, if you use MSN Messenger after doing this the Messenger will "forget" your login information so make sure you remember your password for the chat proggie. smile.gif

 

After you complete these steps your saved games will work as if nothing happened.

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StarJet905

All this having a period in the foldername usually comes (i'm not sure) because of a previous installation of windows or afolder existing with the same name in docs and settings.

When u install windows and create a username, they make a folder in docs and settings with ur name. Now if you install a fresh copy of windows XP overwriting an old copy of windows 2000 which has a username with the same name then the following happens.

Ex: In windows 2000 you had a username called User.

Then u install a fresh copy of windows XP without formatting the HD.

The User Folder Still Exists In docs n settings.

 

So if u put user as the username then windows wont overwrite that previous folder as many people think but would instead select the name

 

user.(the pc name u gave during windows installation)

 

something like: User.XTRAMEDI-TIIOVL

Changing the username usually cures this problem.

 

 

Well, crap. I tried renaming my user account, which worked, but the DIRECTORY is still called "C:\Documents and Settings\Andrew Vogel.BOWTIE-TY081XXX"... I cannot rename that directory to get rid of the period and don't really want to create a new user just to run the game.

 

Is there some way to change that DIRECTORY name?

 

Try a name that u have never used before on ur PC.

Edited by StarJet905
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My savefile got corrupted because my SanAn ran stuck when saving. So now i dont have anything and i really dont want to start over. I reached San Fierro already, but dont remember the exact mission. Can somebody help me out on a save? confused.gifcryani.gif

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Have you tried quitting San Andreas, then re-loading it? That "missing saved games" thing happened to me a couple of times with Vice City and got fixed just by doing that. Hope it helps.

Thanks PresidentKiller!! I simply reloaded San Andreas, and all my save games are now available again.

 

Phew!

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  • 1 month later...
sattan_hussein

i have a different problem...

 

my brother overwrote my savegame, and i was at Los Desesperados misson (lol now i am el desesperado), is there any way back?

 

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If ur using cheats then that could be the problem, tooo many and it corrupts, same thing in vicity.

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