VaM 1.x “Duplicate Key” Error After Copying to SSD (VAR Package Refresh Fails)

I backed up the entire game to a portable drive, where it still runs correctly and loads all VAR packages. After copying the same files to my SSD, the game shows the following error during package refresh:

Exception during package refresh System.ArgumentException: An element with the same key already exists in the dictionary.
at System.Collections.Generic.Dictionary`2<string, MVR.FileManagement.VarFileEntry>.Add (string, MVR.FileManagement.VarFileEntry) <0x00330>
at MVR.FileManagement.FileManager.RegisterPackage (string) <0x005a0>
at (wrapper dynamic-method) MVR.FileManagement.FileManager.Refresh_Patch1 () <0x01096>

Since the SSD copy was made directly from the portable drive, I expected identical behavior. Why is this happening?

Last entry

atani said:

200. Errors in the VaM log

Errors you may find in the error log First you must make sure your VAM folder is not in a protected location like "Program Files/", "Users/...", "Windows", just use a simple folder like "C:\VAM" for example. VAR file... .. VAR file AddonPackages\AlmightyPatty.RE8_WeaponsPack1.var is not named...

hub.virtamate.com

Last entry

Click to expand...

the same game in my portable disk can load all the vars and work well, but a full copy in my SSD doesn't ? that's really weird

It means that you have one or more VARs with problems, but as the scanning process is not identical it can show the problem on one but not the other, or at different times in the same.
This is the most likely problem, VARs with unrecognized characters, often chinese.
In a far less common scenario, there's some specificness to your disks such as permissions, mount options, or even bad blocks.

atani said:

It means that you have one or more VARs with problems, but as the scanning process is not identical it can show the problem on one but not the other, or at different times in the same.
This is the most likely problem, VARs with unrecognized characters, often chinese.
In a far less common scenario, there's some specificness to your disks such as permissions, mount options, or even bad blocks.

Click to expand...

well, even a full copy can't restore my game. So I can only use binary search? But there are too many of them...

It's almost always something from an asian creator that you got from outside the Hub.

1. Move out the VARs from asian creators of AddonPackages, load VAM and confirm that the error is gone. Quit VAM.
2. Make a folder inside AddonPackages and move some of the VARs you set aside to the folder. Load VAM, see if the error appears,
3. If no error, move those VARs to the base AddonPackages to empty the subfolder, move new ones in, hard reset VAM or quit/start.
4. Redo the operation until you find a group of VARs that throw the error, one or more are the culprit(s).