Topic: Gamecube save file corruption

I'd just finished playing Wind Waker earlier today and went to save, but was greeted with a message telling me that my memory card was damaged and the file couldn't be saved. I removed and reinserted the card, but this time it told me that the card was corrupted and needed to be formatted. This card holds all of my save files so I was obviously reluctant to format it. Instead I turned off the Gamecube, turned it back on and looked at the contents of the card. All files were present and correct, except for my Wind Waker file which was just showing a blank square instead of the usual picture and had the letter ÿ repeated instead of its description. I deleted the file and tested the card again, this time with Smash Bros Melee and it loaded and saved fine. However, this card is a 3rd party one and I now fear for my other saves.

Is this indicative of a fault with my memory card or console? And is this likely to happen to my other saves at all? I have no way of backing them up right now as this is my only memory card. Also, are memory cards region-locked? I thought I could buy a new one from Amazon, as I did with a Gamecube/GBA Link Cable a while back, but that cable turned out to be American. It works with my UK Gamecube, but I don't know if a US memory card would.

memcards are not region locked

first buy one than place that one in the other slot than copy all the save files over so you will have a back up folder. then if that one breaks boom you still have your save files

Would Amazon be the best place to go for a new card? Obviously I'll want to get an official one that's new if possible - I don't want to gamble with a 3rd party one again! Amazon is the first place that springs to mind, but is there anywhere else that anyone would recommend?

I would say that the problem your having is the memory card and not the console but than again I could be prejudice to third party stuff. If you are looking for an official mem card you can try used gaming stores and other than Amazon the only other site that comes to mind is Ebay.

You will probably have to buy a new Memory Card. I recommend looking for a first party product with the size lower than 1019 Blocks, probably the 251 size. Higher size memory cards usually tend to lead to corruption.