Probems with Stella Deus and SMT: Digital Devil Saga

[Geoduck]

Having failed at purchasing a HDD for my V7 (I've asked all the stores, and it seems they don't sell HDD's in this country. WHAT???), I've gone back to backing up my games.

As usual, I had a friend back up the games using his PC, exactly like he did for the rest of my other games.

Problem:

Stella Deus- The game never loads, jumping back to the menu screen with every reboot (FYI, I have a Magic 2 modchip on a V7--reloading method requires restarting the PS2 after initial startup).

SMT: Digital Devil Saga- Also never loads, automatically entering the memory card screen and freezing there.

Is it that my modchip (Magic 2) is not up-to-date enough to load these games, or might there be a problem with the backing up process?

All other games work fine.

Thanks for any and all advice,