Gutted isn't the word :(

Since FM10 I have started each new version unemployed and had a "career" in game. And really enjoying it. So when FM12 came out I did the same, eventually getting the job at Rotherham and for the first time in over 10 years of CM/FM gaming achieved back to back promotions! Then I left Rotherham in the Championship and dropped back down to League 1 to take the Middlesborough job. And bugger me I did it again back to back promotions snatching the title on the last game

Usually whenever I get a team into the EPL I invariably go straight back down, but not this time, finished 14th.

So as you can imagine I was really looking forward to the 2016-17 season, got a decent batch of regens in the academy, one or two prospects pushing for starts, scouting coming good, and my in game reputation growing. This is just a bare bones summary of my game so far but I was enjoying it more and more with each season.

Then disaster, without warning a mechanicaly breakdown of my hard drive and you guessed it, no back up. Yes I know I'm a fool and yes I know there isn't a lot I can do about it. I just wanted to share my pain in the faint hope it might ease my burden.

Needless to say I will have a go at recovering something from the drive next week when I have more time, but hold very little hope. In short I need a miracle.

Uh... well on the bright side you can now buy a Solid State Disk and have the game much faster after you reinstall it. :o

Anyway, sorry to hear that mate, maybe you'll find starting over with a different team fun.

You learn it the hard way. I feel for you!

FM11 having my greatest save ever with Arsenal and I'm in 2028 just months away from the new 80k stadium named after me and then BAM XML killed my game! Although the most frustrating part was that my backup save had also corrupted, the save that was supposed to be my saviour -.-

Ever since that day I've had 3 file rolling save on with the game saving each week, never being hurt like that by the game again, I hope.

I can see where you're coming from with that, but in my case that wouldn't have saved me as it was a total HD anihalation . The plan is to back up my save season on season onto an external hard drive. And use the 3 game rolling save in game. The annoying thing is when I connect the drive up to the laptop with a caddy, windows see's the drive but won't open it saying is needs formatting

I've shared your pain OP.

I had an epic AFC Telford save in FM11. Had a great story going with my centre forward, Dean Grundy. He joined my club on loan from Chelsea in my second season when I was in the Blue Square Premiership. Was my clubs top goal scorer that year as we got promoted without getting beaten all year. Chelsea then released him and burst the bank to sign him. He joined and went from strength to strength. Top scorer every year right up until our 2nd season in the premiership. He guided us to a Premier League/Europa League double, scoring in the final of the Europa League and then a brace in the final of the resulting Super Cup.

I lost the game because the power cut off in the house while I was saving. I was gutted.

Wrote a lot more there than I had initially planned. Dean Grundy was just such a legend. RIP Dean Grundy.

We've all been there. It will hurt for awhile, but eventually you'll come back and start a new game and fall in love with a new save.

As haz32 says, we've all been there and we all still seem to be haunted by that lost save...

I was there mate a few months ago....I managed to bring a lower league side up to the EPL, finish 11th and win the FA Cup then.........BAM CRASH DUMP!!

I used the same save so it overwrote itself so no other backup

I tried to start a new game but it wasn`t the same and it put me off FM completely, for a few weeks anyway

Um, it shouldn't matter about the hard drive. Aslong as you recently saved it, it should still be on your steam account. Get a new hard drive, log into your steam account and see if it's there

I feel your pain...

I had promoted Birmingham to the Premier League and saving it with back-up files. Both files got corrupted, so I had to play from the middle of the Championship again

Um, it shouldn't matter about the hard drive. Aslong as you recently saved it, it should still be on your steam account. Get a new hard drive, log into your steam account and see if it's there

Don't think save games are stored on your Steam account though? Aren't they stored locally?

What I do is have my current last few saves stored on my SSD, and older ones backed up on a large-ish slower storage HDD. So if I lose one, I'll still have the other.

Don't think save games are stored on your Steam account though? Aren't they stored locally?

Yeh saves are all stored locally in your my documents, storing on an online server would just be a pain and make it impsobbiel to play with steam in offline mode, like anti-steam people are advised.

Well thing with steam cloud saving, it's generally games with fairly small save-games that do that. Saving a 150mb file to steam isn't that realistic.

Just to let you know that thanks to Windows Scavenger I've managed to recover a ot 95% of my photos with just a few corrupted. And managed to recover my save WAHOOOOOO!!!

What's the best way to prevent losing your game if it's corrupted? I lost an epic one a few months ago and I'd hate for it to happen again.

Just to let you know that thanks to Windows Scavenger I've managed to recover a ot 95% of my photos with just a few corrupted. And managed to recover my save WAHOOOOOO!!!

Awesome!!! We do love a happy ending

After my HD crash 2 years back, I always backup my saves to different disk too

What's the best way to prevent losing your game if it's corrupted? I lost an epic one a few months ago and I'd hate for it to happen again.

Rolling auto-save!

You could also consider backing them up to a cloud-based service such as Dropbox or Google Drive. That way you cannot be affected by mechanical HDD failure.

Another benefit is you could then reinstall on any PC using steam, and still have access to your save games!

What's the best way to prevent losing your game if it's corrupted? I lost an epic one a few months ago and I'd hate for it to happen again.

Rolling 3 game autosave, set weekly and you will only lose 1 weeks game time if you have a problem.

Use Dropbox for your backup games. Install it free and move your Saved Games folder to dropbox.

It's free, and you can install your own dropbox on as many PCs as you like.

Similar to iCloud. It updates automatically with every save, so no need to drag files around. You just need to be online.

If your PC crashes, just reinstall dropbox on your new one, sign in, and all your lovely games are there.

Yeah, came to say that. FM should strike a deal to promote Dropbox!

I've had one recently, won the Scottish Cup with Queen's Park in 2034 saved game, exited ten came back to it a few hours later and the save couldn't be loaded, really was gutted!