Deleted Saves are corrupted when recovered [ Edited ]

[thisisarealpainx]

I’ve been trying to recover a save which I would have made around September 2018 which has been deleted for months. It wasn’t in my recycle bin, so I got a hard drive data recovery programme. Sure enough, it was able to turn up a number of save files from last September. I transferred these to my save folder. But when I try to load these saves they have a blank picture and I get the message that I can’t play them because they are corrupted. I’m not sure how this can be - I’ve never had a corrupted save file before and they certainly were not corrupted when I deleted them. I suppose this must have happened as a result if the data recovery programme but I don’t know what I could have done wrong.

[kreatora · Accepted solution]

@thisisarealpainx

Since that time there have been many updates that did not refer to this old save. No wonder that it doesn't work.

I don't work for EA

[kreatora · Accepted solution]

@thisisarealpainx

Since that time there have been many updates that did not refer to this old save. No wonder that it doesn't work.

I don't work for EA

[thisisarealpainx]

Ah I didn’t think of that. Duh, stupid me. That would definitely explain it! Thank you. Fortunately I realised I had saved the particular room I had been looking for (which was from that save) to the gallery. So I don’t need that save any longer anyway.

[crinrict]

@thisisarealpainx The missing picture is usually a sign of old saves but it shouldn't just corrupt like that. You should be able to load saves from 2014 just find if you want to.

`The more likely explanation for the corruption is that the recovery process didn't recover it properly. If you deleted the file a while ago, it's more likely that some of it wasn't recoverable anymore and the programs just weren't able to get them fully.

Did you never make a backup to your hard drive somewhere you could try ?