40gb Zen Xtra ERASED!

[MrMunkeepants]

up until Saturday night, it worked fine. Tonight I plugged it into my PC (Windows XP) to add some music and there were no files on the device. my computer recognized it, the playlist names were there, but there were no files. I unplugged it from the PC and checked the library on the device, and there was nothing there.

I've had battery life issues for a while, so since I mainly hook it up to a stereo it just lives off the AC adapter (with battery removed.) sometimes if I've been editing a playlist on the device and add music, all my previously Selected Music goes away, which can be annoying when trying to build a playlist. in those cases I unplug it, and it usually "forgets" whatever changes were made during that session, restoring my unsaved playlist to Selected Music. I unplugged it this time, hoping maybe it would see my music files again. no luck.

does anybody have any idea why my music files would be erased or "forgotten," and have a suggestion about getting them back?

EDIT: after finding XtraOwner's posting of a similar problem, I got about 80% of my library back (and immediately backed up onto my PC). to do this, I ran the scan tool, plugged the USB cord in, and performed a hard reboot when it hung (basically pulled the plug out). the computer seemed to see it before it could go back into its diagnostic loop.

however, every time I start the device I'm afraid my music will be gone, I'll have to go through this whole process, and I will progressively lose more and more files. can anyone confirm that this will happen? is it a drive problem, or a player problem - and which needs replacing?

[CrowdAds]

[coachop94]

I would charge up the battery for this & connect to wallcharger. If you have the files backed up I would boot to recovery & do this Format(will erase ALL the music) Cleanup>Reboot.

[MrMunkeepants]

I took the hard drive out and had a tech friend run some diagnostics - there are definitely bad sectors, and we will have to replace the hard drive to keep this from happening in the future

[coachop94]

Well that's good now you can put a larger drive inside. 60-80GB would be nice for you.