file tranfer woes - please help...

[johnnyzero]

I have a brand new 1Gig player like the one pictured here (except mine's grey), and I'm having a really hard time transferring my MP3 files to it without it crapping out.

I'm trying to do an initial transfer of about 905mB of MP3 files at once using the standard copy/paste methods in Windows XP. The files start copying ok, but then when it gets to about 530-550mB, I get an "Error Copying File or Folder" msg: "Cannot copy [song name]: The directory or file cannot be created". If I then browse the player, all 540mB worth of files that got copied before the error msg are there. After that, I can no longer copy any additional files to the player without getting that same error msg, even if I re-start the player, etc. After that, I simply can't copy any additional files to the player unless I wipe the drive - even if I delete a bunch of files to make "room" (so it's not a space problem).

BTW, before doing any of this I deleted all the goofy "sample" files from the player so that I'd have plenty of room to accomodate my 905 mB of MP3 files. It's not a simple lack of "disk" space because I get the same error msg if I try to bulk-transfer about, say, 625mB of files too.

Interestingly, if I try to transfer just a single ~700mB file, I don't have any problems. Also, I'm able to transfer all these files to the player no problem using the bundled Media Manager thing. However, it insists on putting all my songs in sub-folders based on Artist name (and adding a buncha other folders I don't want). Besides, the whole reason I bought this type of Chi-Pod is because I wanted to use regular Windows file management, instead having to use some god-awful media mangler software, iTunes, Real, etc - yuck!

Anyway, here's what I've already tried, just so I don't waste anyone's time trying to re-invent the wheel:

*My first thought was that it was a space problem and that I had bought a fake/hacked 1gB player with only 512mB or something. I was about to contact the eBay seller and rip 'em a new "USB port" for selling me a fake. To verify that it wasn't hacked, I re-formatted using Disk Tool (Low, FAT16, no encrypted partition), and after the format it reports ~1gB, same as before. So I'm pretty certain it's not hacked. The low-level format also would've fixed any storage corruption that might have been there.

*I disabled all the Sleep & Power Saving stuff, thinking that it might just appear to be crapping out at a certain point in the transfer - when actually it was trying to power down or sleep after a certain period of time. Nope...

*I tried bypassing my USB hub & unplugging all my other USB devices. Nope...

*The firmware, from 6/20/07, is already the most current I could find - so I haven't messed w/ that.

Other than this problem, I really love my new Chi-Pod - but as you can probably tell, I'm pretty frustrated at this point. Any help will be MUCH appreciated.

best to all,
JohnB

[admin]

johnnyzero

Sorry to hear about your woes.
The good bit is you've gone through the effort of trying things to fix it so good on you.

Here are some more things for you to try:

1. From Windows, r-click then choose "Properties". Then on the [Tools] tab, there should be an option "check for errors". Try running that and tick all the "repair/fix" options too.

2. Extract the firmware from your player using the s1fwx tool (in our "Downloads" area).

3. After extraction, REFLASH your player with YOUR extracted firmware. Remember to use your OWN FIRMWARE and no one else's.

Try those and tell me the result.

[johnnyzero]

Thanks for your intelligent & prompt response, Admin. I'll try your suggestions & see if that fixes it.

I'm not sure if a Windows Error Check will fix anything that the (3!) low-level formats missed, but it's certainly worth a try. I'm also gonna try the HP disk utility mentioned in one of the pinned posts about hacked MP4's, and see what that tells me.

btw, I tried using SwissKnife to do a format, but it wouldn't work for me - I got a write-protect error msg. It has some useful "disk info" features, though.

I suspect that this problem is a result of either poor design (memory addressing & buffering, USB interface chip, etc); or perhaps it's just a defective memory chip. At least I'm fairly certain that it's not an eBay hack job with half the advertised memory or something.

It's kinda weird that I can't use Windows to transfer the files, yet the bundled Media Manager can do it with no problem. Maybe there's a low-level difference in the way they transfer and buffer data to the player? Or maybe the Media Manager uses low-level, chip-specific commands that work better than the USB Mass Storage driver used by Windows? Who knows...

I'm also gonna try sending my files in smaller chunks instead of all 900mB at once - maybe 300mb at a time or something. If that works, I can probably live with it. This is really the only time I'm ever gonna need to transfer such a huge batch of files at one time. Once the bulk of my MP3's are on the player, I'll only be doing small transfers after that.

In any case, I'll keep you posted. I'm still curious if anyone else has experienced particular this problem w/ this model.

best,
JohnB

[admin]

johnnyzero

Error checking might not work, but it's worth a try. Sometimes the file system structure might be corrupt, so it might help. A few members have reported that it has helped.

Normally a LOW format should resolve most issues with errors.

If those don't work, I would say the memory chip is abit faulty. Not completely faulty, but enough to annoy you though.

Tell me how you get on with trying those and we'll work from there.