What could cause every PSP save game to become corrupted?

I was setting up my PSP 2000 to my TV using a Component to HDMI Upscaler so that like all my other consoles, is connected to a single HDMI channel, how after that I had planned to start a new game in Shin Megami Tensei Persona 2 this time using a walk though so that I could do all the side quests (because a lot are apparently missable), to make it complete, I planned to delete the save games, install data and system config.

Just as I was about to I found the first file in the list saying it was corrupted, I tried to look though to see what game it could have been but my guess was that it was my Black Rock Shooter Save as that was the last game I was playing on it and the save before was Black Rock Shooter, however I suspect it was the save I made just before I first met Nana.

So anyway, after accepting that it probably was Black Rock Shooter I went to delete the system config file, right after that, all the save games but 3 became corrupted, the 3 was a Shin Megami Tensei Persona System Config File, a Fate/Extra Save and a Disgaea save, since the Disgaea file was my most recent one nearing the end of the game I thought I'd back up since I couldn't delete the corrupted data via the PSP and I wanted to back up the Disgaea file, however when I plugged my PSP into the computer and went to PSP/SAVEDATA there was nothing in there, my computer is showing hidden files and not hiding system files so I can see every file, also, in the properties of the removable drive the PSP became it showed it had more memory than what the PSP was saying.

I've looked up how to try and recover the corrupted data, some suggested using the file system however since I couldn't even find the Save Games that was a bust, the other method use this Magic Save thing but reading it it said "Install like any other App", considering that I never installed an app and most likely would do it from PSN I would assume that this program was for a hacked PSP, with little option I had to reformat.

I am wondering what could cause so much of my save data to become corrupted like that as it makes no sense, it doesn't seem to have done it again but I want to know what could cause this so that I can better prepare for the future since I've looked probably a total of 100+ hours of gameplay.

Solution 1:

The two most likely issues are the connection between the memory card and the socket are dirty, or the memory card is failing. A dirty card will cause spotty failed reads, and can generally be recovered from. Some of what you're describing sounds like a bad card connection.

In the first case pull out the card and with a soft eraser, wipe across the contacts and reinsert it. Make sure it is secure in the socket.

If that fails, it's very likely the card itself is failing. Memory cards have a finite lifetime of writes. When the part of the memory card that stores the file index starts to fail, you will typically loose all of the data on the card because anything that manages to write will be corrupted, and shortly there after you may loose the ability to even read data from the card at all.