GameCube Memory Card Corrupted, but HOW??

[The VGM Lover]

Got a new Memory Card, moved data from another Card. That memory card is now corrupted.

HOW DID THIS HAPPEN!?

My only guess is that the memory card that I tried moving data to didn't have save files created for the one game (Resident Evil 4), but how does that corrupt an entire other card???

[The VGM Lover]

I guess I was just extremely unlucky, that day.

Well, I guess I'll have to let the guy know his memory card's been corrupted.

Thanks for the answers, everybody!

[CrypticQuery]

Memory can be a finnicky thing with age (not just limited to technology!), and you risk having data corruption whenever transferring data. 

[VulpineMedia]

It was probably a fluke. Pre 2005-ish flash memory was always kind of finicky. PS1 memory cards are way worse though.

[The VGM Lover]

I'm tempted to test that, since we did go through RE4 many times already, we could get an empty memory card, and I'll do the same thing, and see if it happens again.

[LinkyHYC]

Is it an official Memory Card? I remember I once bought a non-Nintendo Memory Card for the GC (it was for F-Zero GX if I'm not mistaken, we didn't have enough room left on the original 51MB card) and it got corrupted in two days or something. And just by playing GX with it, one morning you wake up and bam! Corrupted. Never had any problem with the official Nintendo ones though.

[VulpineMedia]

11 hours ago, LinkyHYC said:

Is it an official Memory Card? I remember I once bought a non-Nintendo Memory Card for the GC (it was for F-Zero GX if I'm not mistaken, we didn't have enough room left on the original 51MB card) and it got corrupted in two days or something. And just by playing GX with it, one morning you wake up and bam! Corrupted. Never had any problem with the official Nintendo ones though.

Yep. As flaky as older flash technology was, at least Nintendo and Sony etc made an effort to source good parts. 3rd party companies usually just bought the cheapest chips they could, quality and likelihood of corruption be damned.

[The VGM Lover]

Then how did that one 3rd party memory card manage to last for at least a decade (maybe more), until that one thing I did corrupted it?