The third time I ever experienced the loss of save files was actually kind of my fault. For a long period, me, my brother, Jeremiah, and Jarvis were all heavily into The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind for the Xbox. Now, for anyone that knows anything about Morrowind, you know that game is huuuuuge, and therefore could get pretty long. Super-duper long, even. You might also know that the game had an auto-save feature. I am one of those people that likes to have as few save files as possible. I feel good when my save devices are clean and organized (every couple of weeks I like to scan through my 360's hard drive to see what I can delete). Because of this, I foolishly decided to have the auto-save as my only save, without thinking that next time someone played the game, everything I'd done would be erased. So, next time I loaded up Morrowind and went to load my game, I quickly became confused. Continuously scrolling through every save, wondering how my file could have been lost, I remembered that my brother was the only one who had played it since I last did. "First Cruis'n USA, and now this. My brother needs to be taught a lesson."
One button press away from erasing all of his data, my mind raced. I went through every scenario I could as to how this could have happened, and whether or not I should get my revenge. Eventually, I decided that erasing his saves in retaliation was the wrong thing to do (though I don't remember if this was before or after I realized it was my fault). But honestly, I restarted Morrowind so damn much anyways that losing the save file was something I quickly got over. The lesson I learned from this was to always have a separate save file from the auto-save. With the way today's consoles work and the use of individual profiles though, it isn't something I ever really have to worry about again.
The final time (hopefully) I ever experienced the loss of save files was also my fault. It also marked the last time I ever used codes in a game (there was also another incident that contributed to this, but that is for another post). After completing Grand Theft Auto III and still yearning for something to do, I decided to stack as many insane codes as I could. Codes that would transform normal pedestrians into crazy violent people full of hate. Some might remember that saving with some these codes could corrupt the data on your memory card. That is exactly what I did. Thankfully, all I lost was some Metal Gear Solid 2 stuff (mostly photos I had taken). Either way, it was a lesson learned that will save me worse grief in the future.