I'm trying to recover a Pokémon Gold save from an EZ-Flash Jr. that became corrupted after a save. My friend is devastated and about to throw in the towel. he beat the entire game and had ho oh. lots of high level pokemon hes been grinding on every day.
Details:
Game: Pokémon Gold (USA/Europe)
Flash cart: EZ-Flash Jr.
Firmware: FW5_731
Save file size: 32,816 bytes
The game reports: "The save file is corrupted!"
mGBA cannot load the save.
PKHeX refuses to open the save.
What happened:
My friend had approximately 150 hours on the save. He had beaten the Elite Four and defeated Red. The save became corrupted after we finished a link battle. He saved the game normally and powered off the Game Boy. After that, the save would no longer load.
Things we've already checked:
The save file is not empty.
The save file is not all FFs or all zeros.
Removing an apparent 40-byte header from the file did not make it load in PKHeX.
A Pokémon Yellow save from the same EZ-Flash Jr. and firmware opens correctly in PKHeX.
The Gold save and Yellow save appear structurally different despite coming from the same cart.
Known Pokémon on the save:
Dragonite nicknamed "BUFFY"
Another Pokémon nicknamed "CHOMPER", I think it was feraligatr.
Trainer name:
RED (bad name, ik...)
Questions:
Does the file look like a damaged Gen 2 SRAM save, or does it resemble an EZ-Flash-specific format?
Is there a known way to repair Gen 2 save checksums or recover the backup save block?
If the save itself cannot be repaired, is there a way to recover party Pokémon or PC box Pokémon data from the file?
I've attached the original .sav file and can provide additional information if needed.
Thanks for any help.
Pokemon - Gold Version (USA, Europe) (SGB Enhanced) (GB Compatible).sav
