I have the strangest problem here. Can anyone help solve this mystery?

I have the Japanese version of PDO, which I played via disc on a modded PAL Xbox. It's an original boxed copy of PDO, not a bootleg. I put 15 hours into the save. I then decide to install the Japanese disc to my HDD since the DVD laser is dying. I install, it boots fine, but doesn't load the save file. So I search the UDATA directory, and I now have TWO folders with save data!! It created a fresh save folder with a different name.

Two folders in UDATA:

53450007 - old PDO save data, from disc version of PDO Japanese ver
4947002b - new PDO save data, from HDD install of Japanese disc

I try to move all the data from 53450007 into the 4947002b folder. I load the game and it says the save data is corrupt. Press A to delete and create a fresh save folder.

So I used Notepad++ to compare every file in each folder:

100% MATCHES
TitleMeta.xbx
TitleImage.xbx
SUB FOLDER: 80482ED3557F
SaveMeta.xbx
SaveImage.xbx


FILES DO NOT MATCH
PDOSYSTEM.DAT

OK, so basically I'm a bit closer to solving this. Something is wrong with the DAT file, and the disc and HDD versions of the game, THE SAME GAME, generate incompatible save files (WTF?!). For some reason, when I boot the game from the original disc, it loads from the 53450007 folder. And when I boot that same game from the HDD, it loads the 4947002b save data. The only file which is different is the PDOSYSTEM.DAT file. It is not possible to simply swap these around, the HDD installed version will recognise I am trying to load save data from the disc version and refuse to do so.

I installed about 20 games on my Xbox HDD, and this is the ONLY ONE that does this!

I just want all my unlocked scenario data. So I tried downloading saves from GameFAQs, and those are 53450007! Then I try from other sites, and again, all 53450007!

Can I have my 53450007 save, or does anyone have a fully unlocked 4947002b save?

I searched online, and the only references I can find are some cover upload websites, which have different covers for the different serial numbers, 53450007 and 4947002b.


How do I fix this?

More importantly, how the FUCK is this even possible? I installed the game from the same disc I was playing with. How is it possible for the game data to even know whether it's been booted from disc or HDD?