Restoring a corrupt PSO V2 save file?

[Neoblast]

I recently found the vmu I bought the Dreamcast with, and with it I think there's the first PSO save file I have in this game, back from the original SEGA server and schthack later but it won't load (the reason why I have other characters now).

PSO detects the save file but will not show the character, it keeps on saying "Reload".

Is there any way to salvage this? This save has probably more than 500 hours in it and I'm curious to see what's inside.

[Aleron Ives]

I've gotten this bug from having too many serials saved to my DC flash memory at one time, so apparently when I logged off for the last time with that character, the game saved the wrong set of serials into the file, and now it thinks that the serials in the flash don't match the serials in the save file, so it won't load the character.

The only way to fix this would be to figure out which set of serials are in the save file, wipe your DC's flash memory, and then save those serials to the flash memory to unlock the character again. I've never bothered to experiment with this to see if it actually works, though. It's possible that having multiple serials saved to the flash simply corrupts your character.

[Neoblast]

I've gotten this bug from having too many serials saved to my DC flash memory at one time, so apparently when I logged off for the last time with that character, the game saved the wrong set of serials into the file, and now it thinks that the serials in the flash don't match the serials in the save file, so it won't load the character.

The only way to fix this would be to figure out which set of serials are in the save file, wipe your DC's flash memory, and then save those serials to the flash memory to unlock the character again. I've never bothered to experiment with this to see if it actually works, though. It's possible that having multiple serials saved to the flash simply corrupts your character.

I've always used the original ones from my pal v2 copy. The Dreamcast is a different one though. So... I don't think you know where that data is stored in the save file, right?

[Aleron Ives]

Oh, that probably just means that whoever had the DC before you already played PSO with different serials. All you have to do is erase the flash memory on your new DC, input your ISP settings again, and then save your PSO serials to the flash memory. Once the flash serials match the serials in the save file, your character will load again.

[Kurasiu]

I also suggest checking if you have both the MAIN_DATA and GUILD_CARD file on the same VMU (one of them is non-transferable, can't remember which one, and I'm at work currently).
I remember having the same problem with my old character (stuck at "Reload" message during character loading), because I only had one of the two mentioned files on the VMU. Copying the other from another existing character (created from the same disk), seemed to solve the problem, I was able to select the old character.

[Farmhouse]

The Guild Card is non-transferable to another VMU

[Aleron Ives]

You can use homebrew to copy the files, or you can use a glitch in PSO to clone your character to a different VMU if it still loads on the old VMU.

[Neoblast]

You can use homebrew to copy the files, or you can use a glitch in PSO to clone your character to a different VMU if it still loads on the old VMU.

Vmu tools allows you to copy them, you'll have to enable copy protection again on PSO SYS for the game to accept it.

I'm going to try and erase the flash to see if that works with my old save. Wish me luck

[Aleron Ives]

I just clone saves with the game itself, which keeps the copy protection flag intact.

[Neoblast]

It didn't work. There must be something actually broken within that file :/