FAT is corrupted

[Hirudin]

Originally Posted by Gobles

I think I need to remove that partition and reformat under FAT 32, any ideas, thoughts?

Sounds good to me, but not something I've done with a Fuze.

I'd...

• Delete both partitions of the internal Fuze memory
• Create a new partition and format it using FAT32, I would uncheck "perform quick format" if the option exists, also assign it a drive letter.
• Disconnect the player and see what it does

If it's still complaining I'd then try loading one then the other firmware .bin files (disconnecting the player from the computard each time).

For shits and giggles I'd probably try the 20 second reset a couple more times if it was still giving me problems.

[CrowdAds]

[Gobles]

everything got wiped with the format done by the PC

[WalkGood]

Back, what do you see now? What happens when you disco the device from pc? If you reconnect is it recognized? It's possible that if you followed ^^ those instructions that Hirudin posted about deleting, you may have bricked it.

[Gobles]

i have not been able to really do anything with it; will not take the new firmware, when I try and disconnect the player it just shuts off. When I turn it on, goes to error message again, when I connect it to the pc it goes to error message again.

[WalkGood]

Sounds bricked to me, the only way I know how to unbrick a sansa is with linux and the e200tool, but AFAIK it doesn’t work with the fuze or I haven’t read about it.

[WalkGood]

Try one of these: with the power off, while holding the center button down, slide the power switch DOWN to the HOLD position and try to connect to pc. Is it recognized as a new drive?

If not, try: hold the << side of the scroll wheel, while plugging in your Fuze. Keep that button held down until she pops up on the PC. A good sign would be if you see a pop up "Found New Hardware" balloon in the system tray.

Does the device show up in the open Windows Explorer window with either method, with a drive letter assigned? If so, paste the fw to the root and disconnect the device to see if she boots.

Edit: if both methods above fail and you want to give something else a try, look here at rockbox, not sure that would work, but worth a try or ask in irc ...

[Gobles]

it is showing up as a new drive, still J and K. I never deleted the partition or anything like that. Still have no way to do that,

[WalkGood]

Originally Posted by Gobles

it is showing up as a new drive, still J and K. I never deleted the partition or anything like that. Still have no way to do that,

Is there just one "J" now or still 2? if there's only one, I would try the fw upgrade on it. If there's two, did you try to connect it like I said above? I was able to revive a dead sansa clip like that, my pc recongnized it and I put new fw on it, but in my case I new which fw version to use, as mine is a v1.

btw for me the second one worked, the one while holding the <<

[Hirudin]

Originally Posted by WalkGood

Back, what do you see now? What happens when you disco the device from pc? If you reconnect is it recognized? It's possible that if you followed ^^ those instructions that Hirudin posted about deleting, you may have bricked it.

What?

Sure, it's possible you could brick a player that is pretty much telling you to format it with a PC (and has alreadty been formatted by a PC) by formatting it with a PC. But that seems pretty unlikely don't you think?

OP: My Fuze doesn't work, it says to recover the FAT with a PC. I've formatted both drives with my PC
Me: Try deleting both drives and reformatting them as one
You: I wouldn't format it like that, you might brick it

[Hirudin]

Since I'm such a nice guy and I hate being treated like I'm a darn idiot I decided to take my own advice on my own perfectly working Fuze v2. I formatted it using Disk Management using the settings I suggested (FAT32, unchecked "Perform quick format").

When it was done I copied the incorrect firmware (v1) to my completely empty Fuze.

Guess what happened! The Fuze, didn't brick, but instead simply (predictably) ignored the .bin file, refreshed my media (of which there was none), and went to the main menu. No bricking, no smoke, no nothing.

And just to prove the point I then loaded the correct firmware on. Ejected the Fuze, and watched it "update" the firmware (it actually installed the same version again).

And, since I don't want to be accused of offering bad advice (again) I recorded it all for you Gobles in HD. The video is expected to finish uploading in 33 minutes (but probably won't be available in actual HD for a little while longer).

By the way, unfortunately, I wasn't able to follow one piece of my advice. I wasn't able to remove the partition and create a new one. I'm not sure why, but if your Fuze will let you delete those two partitions (the two you've labeled "Internal Player" in a picture in a previous post) I suggest you do. If the option is available you just right click on them and choose something like "delete partition" or something like that. You probably won't have the option for the "unallocated" portion, but hopefully you'll have the option for the 1.47 gb partition.

Even if you aren't able to get the two partitions to join as one I'd still format the 1.47 gb partition with the settings above and try copying BOTH firmwares (one at a time if you want to be paranoid) and see what happens. Worst case scenario you end up with a Fuze that is just as useless as it is now.

You Tube

You Tube

[WalkGood]

Originally Posted by Hirudin

What?
Sure, it's possible you could brick a player that is pretty much telling you to format it with a PC (and has alreadty been formatted by a PC) by formatting it with a PC. But that seems pretty unlikely don't you think? ...

I didn’t imply anything about you with that post. If you feel like describing yourself with inappropriate language or feel paranoid, don’t accuse me. Formatting doesn’t brick a player, I’ve been doing it a long time as well and my comment had nothing to do with that or you personally but rather with stating to delete partitions on the flash drive can and does brick Sansa players if you start deleting the wrong partition. BTW if you look at the quote of mine you referred to, I stated “It's possible,” aside from warning the OP nothing was implied.

Personally I would try to get the pc to recognize the player by forcing an msc connection like I mentioned before, which I didn’t make up, it’s mentioned in the sansa forums and rockbox as well and has worked for me in a similar situation. Sure I also recommend to format the drive once recognized correctly, if trying both ideas of reinstalling new drivers and the forcing an msc recognition method don’t work then I might start to consider deleting. Nuff said ...

[Gobles]

the video was a good example pf how to format a sansa drive and manually update the firmware, the drive J shows up as 2 drives still and K is the removable media. I am gonna try to format and combine the 2 J drives and run the new firmware. Thank you

[Gobles]

the video is perfect for people like myself who are not sure what manual firmware updating is and what or how to format a sansa, thank you

[Gobles]

after trying about 8 different programs to delete and combine the 2 partitions, I was able to get it to work with Partition Manager. Currently the drive is 8gb and is being formatted under FAT 32. I will update when it is done and if I can get the firmware onto it

[WalkGood]

Sounds promissing, did you merge them with partition mgr?

[Gobles]

had no option really to do a merge, I had to delete the first partition(1.47 active FAT). Upon doing that, it automatically prompted me with windows to format the drive into the 8gb...woohoo

85% and rolling, will be glad this nightmare may soon be over....

[WalkGood]

Originally Posted by Gobles

had no option really to do a merge ...

Is that the free dl version as the full program does? Only asking for future referance rather than dl that version and test, thanks and I'm glad to hear that finally some progress is being made

[Gobles]

It is the full version, but it is on trial, which could be why. But to all in all this string of help and forum post can be closed as solved. Update complete, SansaFuze is alive again and is Version2

[Gobles]

thank you WalkGood and Hirudin, you both were exemplary in assisting me with this fiasco

[Gobles]

comparing the results here,
BAD:

VERY GOOD: