[SOLVED] Can't Save GC roms, specifically Wind Waker

[swaggadactyl77]

While I play, I save via both the in-game feature and with savestates. Upon exiting and re-booting the rom, the game says the memory card in slot A is blank. Furthermore, when I try to activate a savesate I had ceated previously, it says the savestate does not exist.
I played for a good few hours before this occurred and I'm afraid none of my progress was saved
I am new to emulators and don't know what to do. Does anyone know what is going on? Or where I can find my savestates or memory card data?
Thank you in advance!

[Shonumi]

Make sure you didn't place the Dolphin folder in a place where you do not have permission to write to (e.g. Program Files). Memory Card data can be found in the User\GC folder, save states are in the User\StateSaves folder (named after the game's ID, e.g. GALE01 for Super Smash Bros NTSC-U).

[swaggadactyl77]

I have the dolphin folder in WinRAR form as well as extracted into a folder. Those are both located in my "Downloads" folder is under my "Users"folder in my C: drive. Does this make sense?
There is nothing in my SaveStates folder. There is a file called SRAM.raw in my GC folder.
Any ideas?

Make sure you didn't place the Dolphin folder in a place where you do not have permission to write to (e.g. Program Files). Memory Card data can be found in the User\GC folder, save states are in the User\StateSaves folder (named after the game's ID, e.g. GALE01 for Super Smash Bros NTSC-U).

[Shonumi]

Make sure you fully extract the contents of the .7z archive. Do not simply open the .7z file in something like WinRAR or 7-Zip and click on Dolphin to run it. This will cause problems. You said you extracted it to Downloads, but always double-check.

Dolphin will create emulated memory card files if they don't already exist. When you try to save a save state, or save inside the game itself (which will save to the emulated memory card file), Dolphin should display yellow text at the top of your screen. What do these messages say? If Dolphin can't create a save, it will usually tell you if it can't.

[swaggadactyl77]

I re-extracted the contents of the zip file into a folder labeled "Dolphin" in my "Downloads" again.
When I made an in-game save it said it wrote the contents to memory card A and it said the file it wrote it in.
When I use a savestate, it says it Saved and said the file it saved it in.
I closed Wind Waker and was successfully able to load the SaveState. I closed out of Dolphin, re-booted it, and was able to successfully load the SavedState. I was also successful in maintaining an in-game save. I found the memcard file and savestate files in their respective folders aswell.
I guess there's no way to find my old savestates or GC memcard files as they probably never existed??

Make sure you fully extract the contents of the .7z archive. Do not simply open the .7z file in something like WinRAR or 7-Zip and click on Dolphin to run it. This will cause problems. You said you extracted it to Downloads, but always double-check.

Dolphin will create emulated memory card files if they don't already exist. When you try to save a save state, or save inside the game itself (which will save to the emulated memory card file), Dolphin should display yellow text at the top of your screen. What do these messages say? If Dolphin can't create a save, it will usually tell you if it can't.

[Shonumi]

I guess there's no way to find my old savestates or GC memcard files as they probably never existed??

That seems to be the case. If there was nothing there to begin with, there's not much you can get back. At least things are saving properly for you now. Just be sure to use the emulated memory card to record your overall progress. Save states don't crash like they used to in Dolphin, but if you switch Dolphin revisions or change from HLE audio to LLE audio or vice versa, the save states will be incompatible. Memory card saves don't have to deal with that. Save states are helpful for things like tricky jumps, boss battles, or "cheating" in some mini-games, but I'd recommend you stick to memory card saves for everything else.

[swaggadactyl77]

Sounds like a plan. Thanks for the help!

I guess there's no way to find my old savestates or GC memcard files as they probably never existed??

That seems to be the case. If there was nothing there to begin with, there's not much you can get back. At least things are saving properly for you now. Just be sure to use the emulated memory card to record your overall progress. Save states don't crash like they used to in Dolphin, but if you switch Dolphin revisions or change from HLE audio to LLE audio or vice versa, the save states will be incompatible. Memory card saves don't have to deal with that. Save states are helpful for things like tricky jumps, boss battles, or "cheating" in some mini-games, but I'd recommend you stick to memory card saves for everything else.