Ok guys, so I googled around for this for like 2 hours because i just bought an SSD and reformatted windows and SF4/G4W basically told me to GFY when i tried to migrate my saved files over. I couldn’t find a reliable solution ANYWHERE (despite countless forum threads) but I took some random chances and played around with files and finally figured it out.
I wanted to post the instructions somewhere so that guys who are googling it might be able to find this and not have to start all over again unlocking characters and stuff.
If you’re trying to migrate SF4’s save files from one computer to another, or even on the same computer but from one Windows installation to the next, here’s how I did it.
Note: This is not thoroughly tested on a variety of platforms. This is merely what I did to fix it and it was the only thing that worked.
Disclaimer: I am not responsible for any data loss, injury, or negative effect of following this guide. Use it at your own risk. You’ve been warned.
So let’s begin.
Problem: You don’t know how to migrate save files from one PC/installation of SF4 to another. I initially tried just moving the save.dat files but I would get the error: “Failed to access saved data. Saved data may be corrupted. Create new saved data?”
Solution:
(assuming youre on the PC to install to)
Step 1: Open the drive that has your OLD files on it. Like, the files from your old installation. (The one that worked.
Step 2: Copy this folder: C:\Users<username>\AppData\Local\Microsoft\XLive. Obviously “<username>” is the name of your windows profile name.
Step 3: Go to the same location in the NEW installation. There should already be an “XLive” folder. Rename it to “XLive_bak”. Paste the old folder here so that it takes the place of the folder you just renamed. Note that I have NOT tested this to work on DIFFERENT operating systems. I went Windows 7 -> Windows 7. Most Modern Windows OSes should be the same though. But this probably WON’T work on say Mac->Windows.
Step 4: Locate your capcom folder from the old installation. Should be in documents if you have it as default. Assuming it’s NOT the same location as your new documents folder, just take note of its location.
Step 5: Load up SF4 until you get a message saying that it can’t find your save or whatever. Click yes when it asks you if you want to create a new one. Now exit out.
Step 6: Go back into your NEW System’s capcom folder and inside the “streetfighterIV” folder you should see a folder that looks like a bunch of random letters and numbers. That’s your new target. If you see multiple folders like this, move them all somewhere else and then repeat step 5. Copy the ‘save.dat’ file from the OLD installation’s “documents\capcom\streetfighteriv” folder into the new one. Overwrite the file that’s there.
Step 7: Fire up SF4 again and test things out. Note that you may have to readjust video and control settings (there’s config files you can migrate for that but its easy).