Saving games with a new name

I recently tried to save a game by back spacing the name that automatically comes up and entering my own name. When I went to restart the game it locked up. I have read about people renaming games and it didn't seem to be an issue. What am I doing wrong or how do you do it right?

Urge

[Armistead]

Shouldn't be a problem, do it all the time. So you've been playing with no other problems until this.

Do you have the current patch?

[Stealhead]

I always change the save name from the one the game makes to the name of the sub that I have in that given career and never had an issue.It was most likely a glitch that occured but had nothing to do with the file name being changed.

I recently reinstalled SH4. I upgraded to v1.5 and was running stock with the GFO patch/mod. I have done this in the past when I was running TMO with no problem. I was on my second boat with the new install so it's not like I screwed up the install. It was only march of 1942 and I suffered serious hull damage during an attack on Wake Island. I made it back to Pearl thru Midway on the surface. The hull damage meter read 83. Damage control had fixed all the damage except my batteries would only charge to 73%. They scrapped the boat! I was given the choice of retiring or getting a new boat and it was on my 1st patrol in the new boat that the save rename fubared my career. So, do you do what I did and backspace the save name and write in your own or what?

On a side note I emptied 12 of my 16 torpedos into a 10,000 ton modern tanker at anchor in Wake Island with 2 hits and 10 duds and the tanker was decks awash but didn't sink. The other 2 torps that I fired at ships there were duds also.

Urge

[Stealhead]

When I save in career for the first time I completely delete the file name and make my own I cant fathom why the way you delete the file name and rename would have any effect on the file corruption wise but one of the members like WEBESTER who knows much more about the inner workings of the game would have to tell you what reasons your file went bad.

there are gremlins in the game that just do bad things sometimes

but i cant understand what the save issue was unless you didnt have anything there to rename so it scrambled the save. very strange

when i do it i save it as is, then i will go back and rename it to avoid any errors and i havent had any problems that way

[captgeo]

I have had a few saves restart funny, but I just kept reloading them till they worked proper

Well, now it's just lockin up when I try to save anything. I went with RRs thoughts to save a pristene copy. I have a copy of SH4 both before and after the upgrade to v.1.5 so I think I should just swap out. I was only in March of 42, second patrol, second boat, no ships sunk, almost all duds. I'm trading MK 14s for MK 10s on the next 41 or 42 patrol.


Urge

[tomoose]

I know this is a long shot but do you have a lot of saved games (I mean a LOT)? I seem to remember (a long time ago) that keeping the number of saved games down to a reasonable level was adviseable. It may be nothing but I toss it out there for what it's worth.

Personally I save games as follows;
"Mission XYZ, leaving Midway" (I'm still starting from Pearl)
"Mission XYZ, approaching obj" (I may save with this name a couple of times prior to getting to my tgt loc)
"Mission XYZ, in loc" (I'll save using this name after each attack/encounter)
"Mission XYZ, RTB" (I'll save using this name periodically as I make my way back).

If I screw up and am forced to go back to a saved game even though it may cover days/miles before, I chalk it up to experience.