this is kind of a continuation of the train of thought from the time i worried myself over the temptation to try and recreate Pokemon White pokemon i lost in a tragic crash without saving the game scenario.
for me, i guess one of my biggest worries with files, saves, and their contents is the continuity i see in them. as much as it may just literally be A Bunch Of Zeroes And Ones, i know where that data's been and what it's meant when i'm looking. i am attached to knowing where all my stuff has been. to me, if i copy a file somewhere with the intention of deleting the 'original' (in the cases where i don't just literally Move a file) it is the original for all intents and purposes. my original save file from my cart of pokemon mystery dungeon explorers of sky is the one that is on my computer right now, copied off the old cart to the SD card and dragged off that onto the PC. it's not literally The Same Data - the 'original save', uncopied and in its original context, is long gone. but to me, i dragged it off there and moved it, and now it's here with me. i transferred off as many of the pokemon i'd grown attached to from leafgreen to my copy of platinum before wiping that save as i could, and still feeling just a little bit of a sting for those left behind. i want to preserve the bits of data that matters to me, in whatever forms they end up taking.
the thing with losing progress in pokemon to not saving is that like... it isn't just losing progress in a game, to me? it's losing the funny creatures i've pinned at least a little meaning to in my heart, the bond to these hunks of information i've started to nurture. that kinda continuousness is Dead, Gone. it's the very thing i took great pains to avoid when i dumped my pmd sky rom and save, that feeling of sudden and permanent personal loss of something that i could never truly recreate (even if it's... not nearly as built up in the pokemon white example).
i don't have any kind of message in mind when writing this. i just think it matters for me to put it out there