When turning on my sansa player, I get the message “FAT is corrupted. Connect the device to a computer and”, and then it refuses to work. The problem appeared after synchronizing mp3 files to the attached external memory card. I’ve done this before without problems, and the device has been functioning well for the couple of months I’ve had it.
I have tried using chckdsk on the device, but get the following message after the computer has been checking for a while: “File system type is RAW. CHCKDSK is not available for RAW drives”.
Please help. I’m going on holiday in a few days and it would ■■■■ not to have a functioning mp3 player.
File type RAW? Was this card originally used in a camera? Do you have copies of your songs also on your pc? If so, perhaps you should try formatting the card using the SD card formatter.
What is the speed of your card? Sandisk players often have issues with cards that are faster than class 4 when using the original firmware. Those using class 10 cards report that they work fine though on Sandisk Clip+ players when using Rockbox. Rockbox is a free alternative firmware for the Clip+. Rockbox.org
In that case, if you have copies of the songs on the player also on your pc, then remove the card, format the player’s main memory using your pc, then disconnect the player, and see if it boots up. If it does, then format it again using the player’s menu-settings, system settings, format.
The speed of a card is a number inside a circle written on the card. If no number is there, then it is class 2.
“How do I format the player via my computer? (Just to be sure I don’t do anything wrong).”
Connect the player to your PC while holding down the center button, so the player connects in MSC mode, and the player is seen as an external drive. Right click on start, and click on explore to open windows explorer. In Windows Explorer, Find the drive letter your pc assigned to the player(make sure you pick the right one!), right click on it, and choose format. It should be formatted as FAT32.
Once you make sure your player works without any music on it, then you can reload the music in main memory.
The class 10 card may be problematic though, unless you install Rockbox on the player. All the cards I use with my Sandisk players are class 4. I use Rockbox anyway on my Clip+ for the great playlist features and other great features it provides.
If you don’t use protected files, then set the USB mode on the player to MSC-settings, system settings, usb mode>MSC. If you do use protected files though, then you need to choose MTP.
Never insert or remove a card while the player is on.
Connect the player to your PC while holding down the center button, so the player connects in MSC mode, and the player is seen as an external drive. Right click on start, and click on explore to open windows explorer. In Windows Explorer, Find the drive letter your pc assigned to the player(make sure you pick the right one!), right click on it, and choose format. It should be formatted as FAT32.
same problem
i managed to get my plyer in msc mode
it is recognized by the pc
but i can format it.
the pc says_ can´t finish format
Same issue for me with my Clip+. I did manage to finally get it to connect via the MSC (center button) option and it connects as two separate drive letters. I was able to format one of them. When I try to format the second one via the DOS command line, it fails with “Cannot open volume for direct access.” so maybe that’s some phantom drive connection? When I disconnect the unit from the USB, though, it still displays the error message about the corrupted FAT.
