"Autoload Failed: Save data corrupt."

[Purple44]

Alienware PC Gamer, so deleting\ renaming existing \savegame folder, then pasting in an old \savegame folder like we do with GRID, did not fix "Save data corrupt" error?

Has Codemasters using GFWL screwed up the \savegame folder in DIRT 2? Or is there a matching GFWL save file that has to be backup to now?


@camstatic
You can tell tech support not reading the Tech forum with that response.

[camstatic]

I mainly just want the ford escort back, it was fun belting that thing around. I can't be bothered playing through the campaign again to get it back.

[Grampy]

Hey sweet, I have the same problem now.

Win 7 64bit

[Alienware PC Gamer]

Originally Posted by Purple44

Alienware PC Gamer, so deleting\ renaming existing \savegame folder, then pasting in an old \savegame folder like we do with GRID, did not fix "Save data corrupt" error?

Nope it does not always work if do that. Also it looks like all Achievements are currently broken & not registering with the GFWL servers but will appear on your profile when you sign in just not syncing to the GFWL servers

I'm almost done with CM now this is seriously messed up & Dirtnet seems to cause corruption issues as well if you cannot sign into it then play SP it seems to mess up sometimes!

[camstatic]

Yeah I'm not even going to touch the SP campaign again until I know my progress will actually be saved *properly*... Although as of today I've added the dirt2 savegame folder to my daily backup schedule, just in case...

[Purple44]

Look like with DIRT 2 backing up \savegame folder not good enough:

Warning about saving your savegame folder with DIRT 2.

Repost:

In GRID we were able to make copies of our \savegame folder in case we ending up getting a corrupted file in savegame folder or if testing ebay cars could swap \savegame folders. I got over 40 \savegame folders, one was when I was testing Jupiter derby car to see what happen to it after getting car wash. Never ever wash a derby car!!

I just read this post that just copying your \savegame folder is not enough, now that DIRT 2 is using GFWL:

Originally Posted by popat lal

@OP, i think you spoke too soon

GFWL is nothing but pain in the arse.

it only makes the legit buyer's life more difficult.

did you know GFWL locks the save files to the particular Live ID used while playing & your OS/PC?
this means, you cannot use you savefiles on other PC's or share the savefiles with your friends

i had a pretty loooong nightmare with GFWL & Batman AA.

i had played 30% of Batman & then upgraded from Win7 RC to Win7 retail (fresh install), then when i logged in to GFWL & copied over old saves, gfwl just refused to accept the saves.
i couldnt ask for savefiles online either, as its locked to live id's
i had to play the whole game all over again.

only after Batman issue i learnt the backup method for GFWL games-
1st. you have to backup the GFWL profile folder
2nd. backup save file folder.

I would do some testing on this, but I don't have DIRT 2. Anybody care to do some testing with DIRT 2 and \savegame folder to confirm what popat lal posted, works with DIRT 2?

I have seen plenty of posts that just coping \savegame folder is not working with DIRT 2.


Edit:

Originally Posted by popat lal

I'm afraid you'll have to play the game all over again.

In future, remember to do this-

take backup of these folders

1. GFWL Folder
C:\Users\<your profile>\AppData\Local\Microsoft\GFWLive
C:\Users\<your profile>\AppData\Local\Microsoft\XLive

2. Save game folder:
[Windows 7]- C:\Users\W7\Documents\My Games\DiRT2\savegame

this applies for games all games which use GFWL. (tested games- Batman AA, GTA4)

[camstatic]

Oh awesome so even if we take our own countermeasures we still get screwed? That's lovely.

[ColinMcRae45]

Hi Guys,

Good to see I'm not the only one to fire up DiRT 2 this evening and find my savegame is corrupt. Could it just be coincidence that I only ran GFWL for the first time yesterday? I wonder. But either way, I've managed to recover (almost) all my saved progress. Here's what I did:

1. Copied my corrupt My Games\DiRT 2 folder to a safe place.
2. Started the game and created a new profile, overwriting the corrupt one. Watched intro (yawn).
3. Quit the game and created a backup of the new, clean My Games\DiRT 2 folder.
4. Copied all my original PB... folders back to the newly created My Games\DiRT 2 folder. Ran the game, which didn't complain about any corruption. So far so good, but the game is still at the beginning.
5. Copied half of the files from my Autosave0 folder to My Games\DiRT 2. Ran the game to check for corruption. If everything was OK, I copied in half of the remaining files and so on. If there were problems, I restored the clean data files created at step 3. The idea was just to go through a process of elimination to find the bad file.
6. In my case, only the file NXDSMWW was corrupt. All the others were fine.
7. By this stage, all of my original save data were back in My Games\DiRT 2 except for the NXDSMWW file. All my single player data was restored (tracks, cars, achievements etc.) and my multiplayer level was intact.

Job done . The only catch is that something must have been in that NXDSMWW file. Anyone have any ideas? I can't seem to see anything missing from my game, but then again I don't really have a great idea of what was there beforehand.

Hope this 'fix' works for all you guys out there too...

[RaViOne]

Originally Posted by ColinMcRae45

Hi Guys,

Good to see I'm not the only one to fire up DiRT 2 this evening and find my savegame is corrupt. Could it just be coincidence that I only ran GFWL for the first time yesterday? I wonder. But either way, I've managed to recover (almost) all my saved progress. Here's what I did:

1. Copied my corrupt My Games\DiRT 2 folder to a safe place.
2. Started the game and created a new profile, overwriting the corrupt one. Watched intro (yawn).
3. Quit the game and created a backup of the new, clean My Games\DiRT 2 folder.
4. Copied all my original PB... folders back to the newly created My Games\DiRT 2 folder. Ran the game, which didn't complain about any corruption. So far so good, but the game is still at the beginning.
5. Copied half of the files from my Autosave0 folder to My Games\DiRT 2. Ran the game to check for corruption. If everything was OK, I copied in half of the remaining files and so on. If there were problems, I restored the clean data files created at step 3. The idea was just to go through a process of elimination to find the bad file.
6. In my case, only the file NXDSMWW was corrupt. All the others were fine.
7. By this stage, all of my original save data were back in My Games\DiRT 2 except for the NXDSMWW file. All my single player data was restored (tracks, cars, achievements etc.) and my multiplayer level was intact.

Job done . The only catch is that something must have been in that NXDSMWW file. Anyone have any ideas? I can't seem to see anything missing from my game, but then again I don't really have a great idea of what was there beforehand.

Hope this 'fix' works for all you guys out there too...

It really woks but obviously it wasn't NXDSMWW but some other file in the bottom half (there were 20 files in working save and 21 in corrupted). First I've copied all of my PB folders, then start to copy/test files from working Autosave0 to my corrupted one. Nothing had changed when I've copied the first half of them but with the second worked like a charm Didn't even had to look for the exact file that screwed up my save

THANKS ColinMcRae45!!

[camstatic]

That's awesome news, does the new profile have to be created with exactly the same username? Good on you ColinMcRae45!