Videogame System Backups
This article is part 5 of a series of Quite Useful articles on backups.
If you’ve ever spent more than a few hours getting into a game, the last thing you want is to lose your save data. I recently sank over 20 hours into GTA4 so I really don’t want to lose all the things I’ve unlocked! This article is about backing up your save data for videogames.
Wii
Wii saves are stored internally, but copying them to an SD card is possible. Most SD cards seem to work, I’ve tested both old and new cards on mine. The SD can’t be used to store saves you’re using, you have to transfer them to and from the system’s internal memory.
Go to Wii Options > Data Management > Save Data > Wii and you’ll find the options for copying your saves. Select a save and copy to the SD card.
Note that you can’t copy GameCube saves to the SD card, you’ll need more GameCube memory cards for this.
I seem to be able to copy certain VC games but not others, so don’t bank on being able to backup your VC games.
Certain Wii save files won’t copy: Smash Bros. Brawl won’t, but Wii Sports and No More Heroes will.
What Happens When things Go Wrong
Our Wii developed a fault with its drive, so we reported it and returned it with http://www.nintendoservicecentre.co.uk/. I backed up what I could with an SD card, but when it was returned the Wii’s internal memory was OK. It seems like Nintendo’s service centres are careful to keep your data intact if the machine can be repaired rather than replaced.
PS3
Sony were thoughtful enough to include a backup utility in the PS3’s system software. You’ll need a USB harddisk formatted to FAT32 (or just format it in Windows). There’s a Backup option under the System Menu. It creates and restores a full backup including your PlayStation Store games and saves.
To restore from a backup, power off the PS3 with the switch on the back of the machine. Power it on again and hold the power button on the front until you hear 3 beeps. The PS3 will then run the initial setup process: you can format the internal disk and store from your USB backup after this. Note: Make sure you have an alternative AV cable to HDMI cables in case HDMI isn’t detected during initial setup.
PSP
Unlike the DS the PSP stores data on a memory card. You can read the memory card through the PSP with a USB cable or by using a memory stick adapter for your computer. This allows you to backup saves and even games you’ve bought through the PlayStation store.
There’s actually software out there dedicated to managing PSP data. PSPWare by Nullriver is a good one to check out.
Windows Games
If you’re performing full system backups your saves should be safe in Windows. If you’d like to specifically backup game saves, it’s actually quite hard work. Saves are stored in different locations for different games — this also makes moving them to a new machine annoying.
A tip for finding game saves is to show hidden folders. Some folders are where system data is saved.
I usually check the following locations for saves:
- The game’s installation directory in C:\Program Files\
- My user’s Documents and Settings folder
- C:\Documents and Settings\Local Settings\Application Data
- The Documents folders (in Vista)
There’s really no consistency: some games use system-wide folders, some store them in your home directory, some store them in Program Files, really old stuff saves them in folders in C:. It makes me feel like “Games for Windows” means nothing if Microsoft can’t standardise something that fundamentally simple.
Valve have been talking about Steam Cloud for about a year now, but only Left4Dead partially supports it. The idea is that Steam will remotely store your save games. This will let you get your saves just by logging into Steam with your account on a fresh PC. This is probably going to be the best solution for Windows in the near future.
