# Question for PS2 Experts **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [August 3, 2006, 8:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/question-for-ps2-experts/367243 "2006-08-03T20:19:50Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Scumpup](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ce73a5/32.png) [@Scumpup](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Scumpup)\ **Post date:** [August 3, 2006, 8:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/question-for-ps2-experts/367243/1 "2006-08-03T20:19:50Z")
How the heck did my daughter do this? She, somehow, erased **all** the saved data from a PS2 memory card while trying to play **Kingdom Hearts**. She’s 5 and doesn’t read well enough to understand all the menu commands in the browser or in the game. Yet, it’s all gone. All the saved **Kingdom Hearts games** , all the saved **XIII** , games, all the saved **Scooby Doo Night of 1000 Frights** games, all the **Sly Cooper I, II, and III** games, and all the **Final Fantasy X** games. She can’t, or won’t, tell me what she was doing at the time. Is there some kind of cheat-like button combination that wipes a memory card? Is there a browser command for doing that? The only way I know to delete everything from a card is to go through the browser and delete each file individually, which is a multistep process for each file. Any idea what the child did? ---
**Author:** ![control-z](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/eada6e/32.png) [@control-z](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/control-z)\ **Post date:** [August 3, 2006, 8:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/question-for-ps2-experts/367243/2 "2006-08-03T20:35:24Z")
I don’t know of any way to wipe all games off a memory card from within Kingdom Hearts, but computers aren’t perfect and it’s possible that the card lost its data on its own. Also, if she bumped it while it was saving data it could mess things up. ---
**Author:** ![Anaamika](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/5f9b8f/32.png) [@Anaamika](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Anaamika)\ **Post date:** [August 3, 2006, 8:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/question-for-ps2-experts/367243/3 "2006-08-03T20:42:54Z")
If she turned off the power while the memory card was still in there, it could erase the data. It happened to me once, and then the guy at the store told me never to do that; that that was the result. I lost like 25 hours of a Final Fantasy. ☹ ---
**Author:** ![Clockwork\_And\_Candy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/b782af/32.png) [@Clockwork\_And\_Candy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Clockwork_And_Candy)\ **Post date:** [August 3, 2006, 8:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/question-for-ps2-experts/367243/4 "2006-08-03T20:49:30Z")
Is it an official PS2 memory card or a second party one? 'Coz some the latter brands have the pesky habit of eating saves. MadCatz is the worst, though I’m not sure if they’re still around. Have you tried saving a new file on your card? It might be that the card itself just up an’ died. ---
**Author:** ![Bippy\_the\_Beardless](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/ac8455/32.png) [@Bippy\_the\_Beardless](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bippy_the_Beardless)\ **Post date:** [August 3, 2006, 8:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/question-for-ps2-experts/367243/5 "2006-08-03T20:54:06Z")
As has been said if you cycle power or pull out the memory card whilst it is being written to (and possibly even whilst just being read) it can corrupt the memory card losing all data on it. Also any memory card can just fail due to hardware faults, though this is probably more likely with third party memory cards rather than PlayStations own made memory cards. ---
**Author:** ![Clockwork\_And\_Candy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/b782af/32.png) [@Clockwork\_And\_Candy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Clockwork_And_Candy)\ **Post date:** [August 3, 2006, 8:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/question-for-ps2-experts/367243/6 "2006-08-03T20:54:24Z")
> [@Anaamika](#): > > If she turned off the power while the memory card was still in there, it could erase the data. No, no. If you turn off the PS2 while the memory card is still _saving_ the data, you’ll mess it up. Obviously. But you don’t have to physically remove the card from the console everytime you shut it down. That’s just silly. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Scumpup](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ce73a5/32.png) [@Scumpup](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Scumpup)\ **Post date:** [August 3, 2006, 10:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/question-for-ps2-experts/367243/7 "2006-08-03T22:27:36Z")
It’s a gen-yoo-wine Sony card. I’ll try saving something to it to see if the problem is that the card itself up an’ died. ---
**Author:** ![Mikahw](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/e9bcb4/32.png) [@Mikahw](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mikahw)\ **Post date:** [August 3, 2006, 11:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/question-for-ps2-experts/367243/8 "2006-08-03T23:08:29Z")
It might have had some sort of read error and thought the card was unformatted. Then, when you try to save a game it asks if the card should be formatted and if you choose [yes], there goes your data. Actually, I don’t even know if that’s possible on a PS2, but it has happened several times on my N64. Luckily I was paying attention, hit no, then shut it off and cleaned the card’s contacts. ---
**Author:** ![Anaamika](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/5f9b8f/32.png) [@Anaamika](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Anaamika)\ **Post date:** [August 3, 2006, 11:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/question-for-ps2-experts/367243/9 "2006-08-03T23:51:00Z")
> [@Clockwork And Candy](#): > > No, no. If you turn off the PS2 while the memory card is still _saving_ the data, you’ll mess it up. Obviously. But you don’t have to physically remove the card from the console everytime you shut it down. That’s just silly. 🙂 Oh yes you do. That’s EXACTLY how my data was wiped…I had already saved, then a few minutes later got frustrated with a dungeon and shut it down with the memory card still inside it. Why do you think I said it? Do you think I just made it up? Sheesh. ---
**Author:** ![Anaamika](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/5f9b8f/32.png) [@Anaamika](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Anaamika)\ **Post date:** [August 3, 2006, 11:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/question-for-ps2-experts/367243/10 "2006-08-03T23:55:54Z")
I don’t mean to be snarky and I apologize for that…but I hate being patronized, as if I didn’t know what I was talking about. Hate-hate-hate it. ---
**Author:** ![Clockwork\_And\_Candy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/b782af/32.png) [@Clockwork\_And\_Candy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Clockwork_And_Candy)\ **Post date:** [August 4, 2006, 12:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/question-for-ps2-experts/367243/11 "2006-08-04T00:02:34Z")
Oh, no. It’s okay. I wasn’t patronizing you either and I’m sorry if it came off that way. Bit weird though-- I, like, _NEVER_ remove my memory cards from my PS2 and I’ve yet to have a problem with saves disappearing. Guess I’m just the exception. ---
**Author:** ![Revenant\_Threshold](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/f1d935/32.png) [@Revenant\_Threshold](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Revenant_Threshold)\ **Post date:** [August 4, 2006, 12:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/question-for-ps2-experts/367243/12 "2006-08-04T00:10:19Z")
She may have been on the management screen as opposed to the game itself. If so, it’d be pretty easy to delete all the saved games, but still pretty hard to do accidentally. You’d have to go to each individual file and delete it. ---
**Author:** ![Anaamika](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/5f9b8f/32.png) [@Anaamika](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Anaamika)\ **Post date:** [August 4, 2006, 12:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/question-for-ps2-experts/367243/13 "2006-08-04T00:13:18Z")
Management screen? You mean, like inventory? Nope, I was just running around a dungeon. Got into yet another fight, and almost died. When the fight was over, I got irritated, walked couple more steps, and swore and got up and flicked it off. Next day when I came back to it…data all gone. And Mika unhappy. **Clockwork And Candy** , no hard feelings. Just got my dander up for a minute there. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Revenant\_Threshold](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/f1d935/32.png) [@Revenant\_Threshold](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Revenant_Threshold)\ **Post date:** [August 4, 2006, 12:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/question-for-ps2-experts/367243/14 "2006-08-04T00:14:25Z")
Er, I meant in response to Scumpup’s daughter, actually. I don’t doubt what you’re saying; it’s probably what happened here. Just throwing out other suggestions. ---
**Author:** ![Anaamika](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/5f9b8f/32.png) [@Anaamika](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Anaamika)\ **Post date:** [August 4, 2006, 12:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/question-for-ps2-experts/367243/15 "2006-08-04T00:14:28Z")
D’oh! Our resident undead is not talking about me but about the OP’s girl. Sorry! ---
**Author:** ![Revenant\_Threshold](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/f1d935/32.png) [@Revenant\_Threshold](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Revenant_Threshold)\ **Post date:** [August 4, 2006, 12:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/question-for-ps2-experts/367243/16 "2006-08-04T00:15:26Z")
Oh, and I meant the PS2 Management screen, as opposed to an in-game menu. Accessed by starting up the PS2 without a game disc in. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Hamster\_King](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/8edcca/32.png) [@The\_Hamster\_King](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Hamster_King)\ **Post date:** [August 4, 2006, 12:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/question-for-ps2-experts/367243/17 "2006-08-04T00:59:42Z")
> [@Anaamika](#): > > Management screen? You mean, like inventory? Nope, I was just running around a dungeon. Got into yet another fight, and almost died. When the fight was over, I got irritated, walked couple more steps, and swore and got up and flicked it off. > > Next day when I came back to it…data all gone. And Mika unhappy. Anaamika … first off, let me say that I don’t doubt that you’re describing accurately what happened to you. However, in general there shouldn’t be any problem with turning off your PS2 with the memory card still in the slot. It IS a bad idea to turn the power off when the card is actually being accessed, but the Sony developer guidelines require that a warning message be shown on screen whenever the game does that. Most likely your memory card just had a glitch. It happens sometimes. Less likely, but still possible, is that there’s an undetected bug in that particular version of Final Fantasy where is accesses the memory card without telling you, and you happened to catch it at a bad moment. (There have been some demos that were released without going through proper QA that contain memory card wiping bugs. I’m not aware of one in a commercial game release though.) But barring a one-in-a-million fluke (which you seem to have stumbled on) it’s perfectly fine to leave the memory card in the PS2 when you turn it off. I never take my memory card out. No one at the studio where I work (a PlayStation development house) ever takes their memory cards out, even if we’re cycling the power dozens of times a day. As to the OP … I bet she turned off the power while the game was saving. ---
**Author:** ![Anaamika](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/5f9b8f/32.png) [@Anaamika](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Anaamika)\ **Post date:** [August 4, 2006, 1:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/question-for-ps2-experts/367243/18 "2006-08-04T01:00:57Z")
'Kay…but I also was told the same thing at the place where I bought it from. ---
**Author:** ![Anaamika](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/5f9b8f/32.png) [@Anaamika](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Anaamika)\ **Post date:** [August 4, 2006, 1:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/question-for-ps2-experts/367243/19 "2006-08-04T01:02:02Z")
'Kay…but I also was told the same thing at the place where I bought it from. And if it’s OK with you, I’ll be unplugging my memory card every time still. ---
**Author:** ![chorpler](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chorpler/32/2888_2.png) [@chorpler](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/chorpler)\ **Post date:** [August 4, 2006, 3:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/question-for-ps2-experts/367243/20 "2006-08-04T03:16:47Z")
My bet is she did it from the memory card management screen that you get when the memory card is in and you turn on the machine without a disc (or when the disc can’t be read for some reason). My 6-year-old did the same thing on one of our PS2 memory cards when the Lord of the Rings: Fellowship of the Ring disc went bad and wouldn’t start up. Oh, and also, there’s a bug in the PS2 version of “The Hobbit” that caused it to trash the memory card when I’d try to save at a certain station in the game. Perhaps there’s a similar bug in Kingdom Hearts. But I doubt it; surely that would have been caught and reported long ago. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/question-for-ps2-experts/367243.md?page=2)