Sudden MP3 Internal Memory Loss

slant

slant

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About five minutes ago I was placing my mp3 Sansa clip with 4gb on shuffle, and I experienced a total internal memory loss. I have no tracks, no artists, no albums; it is all gone. There was nothing that I did to cause this to happen. It just occurred. Despite having a total lack of tracks on this said mp3, I currently have about 1gb of memory, even though if all of the tracks had been cleared from the mp3, I would have 4gb, perhaps 3 1/2. I've never had this happen before. I have made numerous google searches on the matter and I have found nothing.

I went to the Sansa website and there really was no help there. I don't have access to my main computer to try to update it to Rhapsody--this may be another factor in the problem, as I use Rhapsody and think that perhaps the dissapearance of tracks could be an error in the music sharing host's programming.

Any ideas?

On a different note, Since I know that this isn't exactly a techie forum where people are skilled with the proper knowledge to solve a problem like this, I'll offer an alternative that you can answer as a typical consumer of mp3's/Ipods.

I'm going to have to replace this if I do not find the problem, so what would you suggest that I replace it with? Are Ipods truly overrated? Price range, what are the best buys? I need to hold at least 500 songs, 1,000 is ideal.
 
I'm currently going through that process, but I don't have warranty. Also, it's currently 12:13AM where I live and the customer service agency doesn't appear to open until 8am.
 
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Your player probably needs hard reset - you should consult the manual or contact support for details.

I would buy a Zune - it has lots of features and a sexy body ;)
iPod... well it's sooooo boring and unoriginal.
 
Hmmm...I don't want to reset anything on my mp3 until I figured out what caused everything to erase in the first place. I'd rather just buy a new mp3 than continue to have the same thing happen- I had 400 songs I'm going to have to replace one by one on that thing, I'm not going to go into a perpetual cycle with it. If the companies suggest me to reset it and 'see if that works' , I'll tell them screw you and go buy an mp3 from a different company.
 
your songs are not erased - since you mentioned, that free space did not show up. The software probably malfunctioned and lost the playlist.
 
That is what I have been thinking, but is it the MP3 software or Rhapsody? How can I test this? I don't have access to Rhapsody right now, so that's out the window.
 
I guess it's the mp3 player software at fault - rhapsody is just a web-service ;) That's why I suggested resetting it. Your songs should not be affected since they are stored separatelly from software.
 
I have reset the settings on the mp3, nothing happened. I'm thinking it's Rhaspody's fault, but I can't confirm it. Tomorrow when I'm at home and able to access the main computer I will be able to give more detailed information and assessments through trying different methods and harassing the companies. I may just get frustrated and buy a completely new and different brand of mp3. I want more memory anyway.
 
I'm guessing it's a USB mass storage device. You connect it to your computer using USB and the computer reads it as an external hard drive. If you're afraid of losing your music, I'd recommend backing up the drive to a disk image. I don't know of any freely available disk imaging software for Windows, but if you can find a local Unix geek they could create an image for you using dd.

Then you at least have the image and if a hard reset doesn't work you can replace it and try something else. You could also play with the image and try to recover the songs if you are feeling bold.
 
I would play with the image, but I don't know what the image is or how to play with it. :(
 
it basically means that:
1) you connect a player to a computer using usb
2) open windows explorer or whatever file manager you have
3) copy the files from player drive to hard disk
 
Already tried that. There aren't any files stored on the mp3 when it's uploaded to the computer- everything is completely blank.
 
Tamagochi said:
it basically means that:
1) you connect a player to a computer using usb
2) open windows explorer or whatever file manager you have
3) copy the files from player drive to hard disk
Click to expand...

Not quite. I think there's something wrong with the file system, meaning you won't be able to read the files through normal means. A disk image makes an exact copy of whats on the disk and saves it as a single file.

A file system is basically a way of indexing the files so they can be accessed. This is usually abstracted by the operating system. The problem is if the index is corrupted then the files are not accessible using Windows Explorer or other file management programs.

There are ways of recovering the index, and if you have and exact byte-by-byte backup image of the disk then it allows you to experiment with various methods of recovery.

I'm gonna try to find some free Windows disk imaging software. If you have the backup and a hard reset doesn't work at least you'll have the option to try something else.
 
Yes... making an image would be a great way to backup it, also once you've done the back up, run defrag on it. Defrag should take care of the problem if it was just corrupted data, if not, call the company.
 
^Defragging won't do a thing, as Sansa players use flash memory. It's actually bad for flash, but it this case it doesn't matter anyway because the memory is probably corrupt.

slant said:
About five minutes ago I was placing my mp3 Sansa clip with 4gb on shuffle, and I experienced a total internal memory loss. I have no tracks, no artists, no albums; it is all gone. There was nothing that I did to cause this to happen. It just occurred. Despite having a total lack of tracks on this said mp3, I currently have about 1gb of memory, even though if all of the tracks had been cleared from the mp3, I would have 4gb, perhaps 3 1/2. I've never had this happen before. I have made numerous google searches on the matter and I have found nothing.

I went to the Sansa website and there really was no help there. I don't have access to my main computer to try to update it to Rhapsody--this may be another factor in the problem, as I use Rhapsody and think that perhaps the dissapearance of tracks could be an error in the music sharing host's programming.

Any ideas?

On a different note, Since I know that this isn't exactly a techie forum where people are skilled with the proper knowledge to solve a problem like this, I'll offer an alternative that you can answer as a typical consumer of mp3's/Ipods.

I'm going to have to replace this if I do not find the problem, so what would you suggest that I replace it with? Are Ipods truly overrated? Price range, what are the best buys? I need to hold at least 500 songs, 1,000 is ideal.
Click to expand...

I've seen this problem before. Sansa players have some weird defect where they'll just go bad after awhile. I know that's not very specific and certainly not what you wanted to hear, but I've seen at least two where the firmware went corrupt and even accessing a menu was impossible.

If you want a new player, look into an iPod nano or a Creative Zen. The Zen is cheaper and they're expandable with an SD (/SDHC) card, plus they have a much nicer screen. The only downside to this is that they're plastic and less durable than an iPod (I managed to break the LCD on mine with a hard fall from my bookbag). iPod nanos are basically indestructible with their aluminum frame and flash memory.

You could also go all-out and get something like a Cowon or iPod touch, but that's probably pretty excessive for replacing a Sansa. ;)
 
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Like Cardigan said, I would go for a Creative if you had to buy a new one. (And I suggest you do, because once an MP3 does something like that, it means it can do it again...) I've always had Creatives and they've worked fine for me. They have perfect sound quality, the looks (if you care about that at all) are sleek and smooth and you get a lot of variety in features to choose from. Every now and then they'll freeze and you'll have to wait till the battery dies out, but I think that's pretty common with things like this.

Anyone would say I work for Creative now~ xD
 
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